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PLATE I. 


FOSSIL FRUIT FROM THE LOWER CHALK OF ROCHESTER, KENT. 


In the National Collection, British Museum. 


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THE GEOLOGIST; 


A POPULAR ILLUSTRATED 


MONTHLY MAGAZINE = @ 


OF 


GHOLOGY. 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


1862. 


re | 


PRINTED BY 
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, 


LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. 


PREFACE. 


—__$——_ 


Frw people know the cost, time, toil, trouble, and determination 
necessary to establish a magazine. This cost, toil, and trouble have 
been borne by me, and that too through a period of my life when 
of all others I was least able to sustain it. Five volumes com- 
pleted, however, show what determination, perseverance, and tena- 
city have accomplished, and to what result we have attained. It 
is true our price is higher, but may we not fairly ask, Is not our 
quality better? Special scientific periodicals cannot be increased in 
circulation like ordinary periodicals by advertisements. There are 
but so many geologists, and advertisements do not increase their 
number. ‘They may increase the casual sale, but not the permanent 
purchasers ; and commercially ‘The Geologist’ must be maintained 
remunerative to ensure its permanency. I have two reasons in re- 
ferring to this topic at the present time,—/rst, to enjoy the grati- 
fication I always look forward to at this congenial season of sincerely 
thanking my many good friends; and secondly, that it may be 
distinctly known that I take the warmest interest in the profitable 
continuance of this Magazine; the increased success of which will 
yield a corresponding benefit to myself as well as to the publisher. 
Not the least gratifying fact is the good opinion held of this 


Magazine abroad. From America, France, Switzerland, Austria, 


aay PREFACE. 


Prussia, Italy, and Germany, we have received many complimentary, 
opinions, but these expressions will be to us only the incentive to do 


better work to more richly deserve them., For contributions to the 


present volume our best thanks must be offered to Sir Roderick 
Murchison, Mr. C. Carter Blake, Mr. Pengelly, Mr. J. Elliott, Mr 
S. P. Woodward, Mr. Andrew Taylor, Dr. Rubidge, Professor T. 
Rupert Jones, Mr. W. Murray, the Rev. 8. Lucas, Count Marschall 
Director Haidinger, Professor King, Professor Huxley, Professo1 
Busk, Professors Dana and Siliman, Mr. Du Noyer, Mr. Guppy 
Mr. Wyatt, Dr. Wilkins, Mr. James Plant, Mr. Bensted, Mr. Johi 


Taylor, Dr. Gibb, Rev. Hugh Mitchell, Professor Ansted, Professo 
Harkness, Mr. Charles Moore, Mr. Wynne, Mr. Sorby, Mr. David 
son, Mr. C. B. Rose, Rev. J. Crompton, and Mr. W. Bollaert. 

Ss. J. MACKIE. 


———OEE—————————E——————— OOO 


ERRATUM. 
In the references to the Plates in this number of 
the ‘Geologist,’ for Plate XIII. read Plate XIV., 
and for Plate XIV. read Plate XIII. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


JANUARY 1862. 


SOME FOSSIL FRUITS FROM THE CHALK. 


WE are not ashamed to confess our ignorance when we meet with 
anything we do not understand. On the contrary, we regard such 
confessions as one of the roads to knowledge ; and we always wished it 
to be one of the features of this magazine that matters not under- 
stood should be brought before the world in its pages. We set the 
example ourselves in the most prominent part of our journal—its 
opening pages. 

Hew things are so little understood as fossil vegetables, and least 
of all are fossil fruits. 

Some new species from the lower chalk of Rochester have just 


Fig. 1. 


been added to the national collection in the British Museum, and 
we lay our drawings of them before our readers with the frank 
VOL. V. B 


2 THE GEOLOGIST. 


admission that we do not know what they are, and we ask as frankly 
for information or suggestions. 

Some indeed, such as the coffee-like berries, fio like fruits, and 
nipadites of the London Clay, carry in themselves the palpable 
evidence of the classes to which they belong; but there are many 
specimens from other rocks remaining undescribed in many a col- 
lector’s cabinet from the want of the ability to give anything lke 
a reasonable suggestion as to what they were, and often, indeed, 
from the sheer incapacity to assign to them even any probable 
affinities. 

And there they will lie and rot, possibly, if their owners are not 
bold enough to confess their ignorance and ask for information. For 
them our pages offer a means of inquiry which they do not possess 
for us. Anonymously they can ask their questions; openly we must 
ask ours. These chalk fruits puzzle us, we confess it. Not because 
we could not soon find some fruits like them in outward form and 
shape, but because we really do not understand their mode of pre- 
servation. Any one can see from our drawings (Plate I., and wood- 
cut, fig. 1) that, flattened as they now are, such flattening is due 
to pressure in the substance of the rock, and that originally they 
were round inform. As they are preserved, they are roundish lumps 
of chalk enveloped in a dark brown ochreous skin. 

A superficial observer might look upon this ochreous skin as the 
real rind of the fruit, but these fruit-masses are perforated by large 
teredines (see woodcut, fig. 1), as if the central part of the fruit had 
been of a solid nut-like character, such as we see in the vegetable 
ivory. 

And yet, if this were so,—and teredines bore we know only in hard 
substances,—how is it that the central solid part has all rotted away, 
and its place been supplanted with the same soft calcareous chalk as 
the stratum in which the fossils were imbedded, while the more tender 
skin only is preserved ? 

In the same beds of chalk with the fruits, there are not <aneommdile 
to be met with fragments of fossil wood, reduced likewise to thin 
skin-like ochreous layers, and bored too, through and through, by 
teredos. These not only show the rotting away of the solid fibrous 
wood, but also its reduction to the film-like state in which we see 
it spread on the surface of the chalk. But these wood-fragments 
might have lain on the still, slowly accumulating surface of the 
cretaceous ocean-bottom, and have rotted down to their last pellicle 
in the ponderous lapse of time. Not so the fruits: they, if solid, 


MACKIE—FOSSIL FRUITS FROM THE CHALK. 3 


have been hollowed out to their shells and then filled in. Whether 
these fruits and other vegetable remains in the chalk be so rare as 
has been thought, I somewhat doubt. Ihave myself collected frag- 
ments of fossils from the lower chalk of Dover and of Maidstone, 
which I believe, since I have seen these specimens, to have been fruits 
like them—and some few of these I think are still in the Folkestone 
collection—but in all cases the specimens seem to have suffered much 
_ decomposition from long-continued immersion before they were com- 
pletely imbedded. 

Here then, at the very outset, we are met with a difficulty which 
must be surmounted before we can compare with any usefulness these 
relies of the arborescent vegetation of the far-distant Cretaceous age 
with the fruits of any living class of trees. There are some in the 
botanical collection in Kew Gardens which present many points of 
similarity, but we should by no means be inclined to say of identity. 
The greatest mischief to fossil botany has arisen from the fact that 
many, if not most of our fossil species, have been named and described 
by men who were not botanists ; and as so little is known of the vege- 
table remains preserved in the English chalk, we refrain from giving, 
and should hesitate long before we assigned, botanical characters to 
any new form from that formation, especially when so vaguely pre- 
served as those before us. 

We would however suggest that the film-like character of the 
ochreous envelopes of these fossils may be thus explained :—Sup- 
posing the fruits to have been solid nuts contained in a husk like the 
nipadites,—and in the cases of the British Museum there are fine spe- 
cimens of nipadites from the middle eocene of Brussels, well riddled 
with teredines; the same is well known to be the case with the 
nipadites and other nut-like fruits of the London clay,—while the 
nuts were in the earliest stage of decay, a film of sulphuret of iron 
was deposited in the empty interspace between the nut and its outer 
husk, forming thus, when solidified, a thin metallic paper-like pellicle 
or case, having on its interior surface the impression of the exterior 
surface of the kernel, and on its exterior surface that of the interior 
of the husk. The fruit and husk might both then wholly decay away, 
and leave this metallic shell to be imbedded and filled in by the na- 
tural deposition of the cretaceous mud. Thus it will be desirable in 
searching for further specimens to look carefully for, and to preserve 
any fragments of real wood or black charcoal, however small, which 
may be attached to the inside or outside of the ochreous film, as in 
these fragments we might get some traces of structure to aid us. 


4, THE GEOLOGIST. 


That something like this has taken place seems indicated by the 
film-like character of such specimens of wood as those we have 
referred to, in which cases the sulphuret of iron was probably de- 
posited in the fine parting between the wood and the bark. More- 
over, the casts of the teredo-holes are covered over with the same 
film of red oxide of iron, which has resulted from the decomposition 
at a subsequent period of the sulphuret. 

Although we attempt not then to determine their family or genera, 
we are not doing bad service to science in drawing attention to these 
fossil cretaceous fruits. The very knowledge of their existence will 
stimulate other observers to seek for more illustrative examples. 
What one is defective in, another may possess, and so from one to 
the other we may gain a general knowledge of the whole organism 
long before any perfect specimen has been brought to light. 

In the present case we submit our plates and figures of these 
fruits, and leave the honour of naming them open to him who can 
really tell us What they are. } 


ON THE INAPPLICABILITY OF THE NEW TERM 
“DYAS” TO THE \“ PERMIAN” ‘GROUP {ORs ROGKS: 
AS PROPOSED BY DR. GEILNITZ. 


COMMUNICATED BY 


Sir Roprrtck Impry Murcuison, F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., 2re., 
Director-General of the Geological Survey of Britain. 


In the year 1859, M. Marcou proposed to substitute the word 
“ Dyas” for “ Permian,” and summed up his views by saying that he 
regarded “ the New Red Sandstone, comprising the Dyas and Trias, 
as a great geologic period, equal in time and space to the Paleozoic 
epoch or the Greyw acke (Silurian and Devonian), the Carboniferous 
(Mountain-limestone and Coal), the Mesozoic (Jurassic and Creta- 
ceous), the Tertiary (Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene), and the recent 
deposits (Quaternary and later)” !!* 

As that author, who had not been in Russia, criticized the labours 
and inductions of my associates De Verneuil and Von Keyserling, and 
myself, in having proposed the word “ Permian”’ for tracts in which 
he surmised that we had commingled with our Permian deposits 
much red rock of the age of the Trias, I briefly defended the views 


* See ‘ Dyas et Trias de Marcou,’ Bibliothéque Universelle de Genéve, 1859. 


MURCHISON—ON THE NEW TERM DYAS. D 


I had further sustained by personal examination of the rocks of 
Permian age in various other countries of Europe.* 

Tt was, indeed, evident that M. Marcou’s proposed union of the so- 
called Dyas and Trias in one natural group could not for a moment 
be maintained, since there is no conclusion on which geologists and 
paleontologists are more agreed, than that the series composed of 
Roth-liegende, Kupfer-Schiefer, Zechstein, etc., forms the uppermost 
Paleozoic group, and is entirely distinct in all its fossils, animal and 
vegetable, from the overlying Trias, which forms the true base of the 
Mesozoic or Secondary rocks. 

Owing to such a manifest confusion respecting the true paleonto- 
logical value of the proposed “ Dyas,” we should probably never have 
heard more of the word, had not my distinguished friend, Dr. Geinitz, 
of Dresden, recently issued the first volume of his valuable pale- 
ontological work, entitled ‘ Dyas, oder die Zechstein-Formation und 
das Rothliegende.’*t In borrowing the term “ Dyas’’ from Marcou, 
Dr. Geinitz shows, however, that that author had been entirely mis- 
taken in grouping the deposits so named with the Trias or the Lower 
Secondary rocks, and necessarily agrees with me in considering the 
group to be of Paleozoic age. 

As there is no one of my younger contemporaries for whom I have 
a greater respect as a man of science, or more regard as a friend, 
than Dr. @einitz, it is painful, in vindicating the propriety and use- 
fulness of the word “ Permian,” to be under the necessity of pointing 
out the misuse and inapplicability of the word “ Dyas.” 

The term “ Permian” was proposed twenty years ago for the 
adoption of geologists, without any reference whatever to the litho- 
logical or mineral divisions of the group; for I well knew that a cer- 
tain order of mineral succession of this group prevailed in one tract, 
which could not be followed out in another. After surveys, during 
the summers of 1840 and 1841, of extensive regions in Russia in 
Hurope, in which fossil shells of the age of the Zechstein of Germany, 
aud the Magnesian Limestone of England, were found to occur in 
several courses of limestone, interpolated in one great series of red 
sandstones, marls, pebble- beds, copper-ores, gypsum, etc., and seeing 
that these varied strata occupied an infinitely larger super ficial area 
than their equivalents in Germany and other parts of Europe, I sug- 
gested to my associates, when we were at Moscow in October, 1851, 
that we should employ the term “ Permian,” as derived from the vast 
government of that name, over which and several adjacent govern- 
ments we had traced these deposits. 

In a letter addressed to the late venerable Dr. Fischer von Wald- 
heim, then the leading naturalist of Moscow, I therefore proposed 
the term “ Permian,’’t to represent by one unambiguous geographical 


* See ‘American Journal of Science and Arts,’ 2nd ser. vol. xxviii. p. 256,— 
the work of M. Marcou having attracted more attention in America than in 
England. 

+ Leipzig, 1861. 

ft See Leonhard’s ‘ Jahrbuch’ of 1842, p.92; and the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ 


6 THE GEOLOGIST. 


term a varied mineral group, which neither in Germany nor else- 
where had then received one collective name* adopted by geolo- 
gists, albeit 1t was characterized by one typical group only of animal 
and vegetable remains. As the subdivisions of this group in Ger- 
many consisted, in ascending order, of Rothliegende, with its over- 
lying strata of Weissliegende, Kupfer-Schiefer, and Lower and Up- 
per Zechstein, and in England of Lower Red Sandstone and Magne- 
sian Limestone, with other accompanying sands, marls, etc., so well 
described by Sedgwick,t the name of “ Permian’”—purposely de- 
signed to comprehend these various strata—was readily adopted, and 
has since been generally used. Even Geinitz himself, as well as his 

associate Gutbier, published a work under the name of the ‘ Per- 
_mische System in Sachsen.’f Naumann has also used the term in 
reference to the group in other parts of Saxony; whilst Géppert has 
clearly shown that the rich Permian Flora is peculiar and charac- 
teristic of this supra-carboniferous deposit. In England, France, 
and America no other term in reference to this group has been used 
for the last fifteen years. 

The chief reason assigned by Geinitz for the substitution of the 
word “ Dyas”’ is, that in parts of Germany the group is divided into 
two essential parts only—the Rothhegende below, and the Zech- 
stein above, the latter being separated abruptly from all overlying 
deposits. ® 

Now, not doubting that this arrangement suits certain localities, 
I affirm that it is entirely inapplicable to many other tracts. For, 
in other regions besides Russia, the series of sands, pebbles, marls, 
gypseous, cupriferous, and caleareous deposits form but one great 
series. In short, the Permian deposits are for ever varying. Thus, 
in one district they constitute a Monas only, in others a Di yas, 10 a 
third a Trias, and in a fourth a Tetras.§ 

In this way many of the natural sections of the north of Germany 
differ essentially from those of Saxony; whilst those of Silesia differ 
still more from each other in their mineral subdivisions, as explained 


vol. Xix. P. 418, “Sketch of some of the Principal Results of a Geological Survey 
of Russia.” 

* Tt is true that the term Pénéen was formerly proposed by my eminent 
friend, M. d@Omalius d’Halloy; but as that name, meaning sterile, was taken 
from an insulated mass of conglomerate near Malmédy in Belgium, in which 
nothing organic was ever discovered, it was manifest that it could not be con- 
tinued in use as applied to a group which was rich in animal and vegetable pro- 
ductions. 

+ Trans. Geol. Soc. London, New Series, vol. iii. p. 37. 

t I may here note that the great Damuda formation of Bengal, with its fossil 
Flora and animal remains, including Saurians and Labyrinthodonts, described by 
Professor Huxley, has recently been referred (at least provisionally) to the Per- 
mian age, by Dr. Oldham, the Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India. 
In fact, Dr. Oldham actually cites the plant Teniopteris, of the “ Permian beds 
of Geinitz and Gutbier in Saxony,” in justification of his opinion. See ‘Memoirs 
of the Geological Survey of India,’ vol. iii. p. 204. 

§ See ‘Siluria,’ 2nd edit., 1859, and ‘ Russia in Europe and the Ural Moun- 
tains,’ 1845. 


MURCHISON—ON THE NEW TERM DYAS, 7 


in ‘ Siluria,’ 2nd edition, particularly at p. 342. Near the northern 
extremity of the Thtiringerwald, for example, and especially in the 
environs of Hisenach, an enormous thickness of the Rothliegende, 
in itself exhibiting at least two great and distinct parts, is surmounted 
by the Zechstein, thus being even so far tripartite, whilst the Zech- 
stein is seen to pass upwards to the east of the town, by nodular 
limestones, into greenish and red sandy marl and shale, the “ Lower 
Bunter Schiefer”’ of the German geologists. The same ascending 
order is seen around the copper-mining tract near Reichelsdorf, as well 
as 1n numerous sections on the banks of the Fulda, between Rotheburg 
and Altmorschen, where the Zechstein crops out as a calcareous band 
in the middle of escarpments of red, white, and green sandstone.* 

But in showing that in many parts of Germany, as well as in 
England, the Zechstein has a natural, conformable, and unbroken 
cover of red rock, I never proposed to abstract from the Trias any 
portion of the Bunter Sandstein or true base of the group, as re- 
lated to the Muschelkalk by natural connection or by fossils. I 
simply classed as Permian a peculiar thin red band (Bunter Schiefer), 
into which I have in many localities traced an upward passage from 
the Zechstein, and in which no triassic shell or plant has ever been 
detected. 

On my own part, I long ago expressed my dislike to the term 
Trias ; for, in common with many practical geologists who had sur- 
veyed various countries where that group abounds, I knew that in 
numerous tracts the deposits of this age are frequently not divisible 
into three parts. In central Germany, where the Muschelkalk forms 
the central band of the group, with its subjacent Bunter Sandstein 
and the overlying Keuper, the name was indeed well used by Al- 
berti, who first proposed it; but when the same group is followed to 
the west, the lower of the three divisions, even in Germany, is seen 
to expand into two bands, which are laid down as separate depo- 
sits on the geological maps of Ludwig and other authors. In these 
countries, therefore, the Trias of Alberti’s tract has already become 
a Tetras. In Britain it parts entirely with its ceutral or calcareous 
baud, the Muschelkalk, and is no longer a Trias; but, consisting 
simply of Bunter Sandstein below, and Keuper above, it is therefore 
a Dyas; though here again the Geological Surveyors have divided 
the group into four and even into five parts, as the group is laid 
down upon the map—No. 62, ‘ Geographical Survey of Great Britain.’ 

The order of succession in the Permian group ali along the western 
- side of the Pennine chain or geographical axis of England proves 
the impossibility of applying to it the word “ Dyas;”’ for over wide 


* On two occasions (1853-4) Professor Morris accompanied me, and traced with 
me these relations of the strata ; subsequently, when Mr. Rupert Jones (1857) was 
my companion, we saw other sections clearly exhibiting this upward transition 
which I have described. Since then, Professor Ramsay, when at Hisenach, con- 
vinced himself of the accuracy of the fact that the Zechstein passes up conform- 
ably into an overlying red cover. My note-books contains many additional 
evidences, which I have not thought it necessary to repeat. 


8 THE GEOLOGIST. 


areas in Shropshire and Staffordshire it is one great red arenaceous 
series, with a few subordinate courses of calcareous conglomerate. 
Following it to the north, Mr. Binney has demonstrated that the 
fossils of the Zechstein show themselves in the heart of red marls 
which occupy on the whole a superior part of such a red series; and 
in tracing these rocks northwards he has demonstrated that there 
are, besides, two great underlying masses, first of conglomerates and 
breccias, and next of soft red sandstones, the latter attaining, as he 
believes, a thickness of not less than 2000 feet. Here then the Per- 
mian may be considered a Trias. Professor Harkness, in a memoir he 
is preparing, estimates the thickness of these Lower Sandstones and 


conglomerates to the N.E. of West Ormside, in Cumberland, at 4000. 


to 5000 feet, and shows that they are surmounted by marl-slates 
bearing plants, thin-bedded red sandstone, grey shale, and sandstone 
and limestone, the latter—the representative of the Magnesian 
Limestone—being covered by red argillaceous shale.* Now in all 
these cases the Permian is a series divisible into three or more parts. 
But when we follow the same group into Scotland, it there parts with 
its calcareous feature, and, becoming one red sandstone of vast thick- 
ness, 1s again a Monas. 

I have entered into this explanation because my friend Dr. Gei- 
nitz has seized upon one illustration in my work ‘Siluria’ which 
shows that in certain tracts, where the Zechstein or Magnesian 
Limestone is subordinate to an enveloping series of sandstones, the 
Permian of my classification is there as much a tripartite Paleozoic 
group as the Trias of Central Germany is a triple formation of Meso- 
zoic age. Unless, therefore, the data to which my associates and 
self have appealed, in the work on ‘ Russia and the Ural Mountains,’ 
and which I have further developed in Memoirs read before the 
Geological Society, and in my two editions of ‘ Siluria,’ be shown to 
be inaccurate, I hold to the opinion that there are tracts in which 
the Zechstein is simply a fossiliferous zone in a great sandstone 
series, to which no division by numerals can be logically applied. 
Even if I do not appeal to the natural evidences in England, Russia, 
and parts of Germany, but refer to those tracts where the Zechstein 
or Magnesian Limestone has no natural red cover, I may well ask, 
does not the word ‘‘ Permian,” in the sense in which it was origi- 
nally adopted, serve for every tract wherein the uppermost paleo- 
zoic fossil animals and plants are found, whether the strata of which 
the group is composed form, as in Russia and Silesia, one great series 
of alternations of plant-bearing sandstones and marls in parts con- 
taining bands of fossiliferous limestone, or whether, as in other 
tracts, the Zechstein stands alone (as near Saalfeld), or in others, 
again, where the group is tripartite, and even quadripartite? Quite 


* The red clay or argillaceous shale which covers the limestone is surmounted 
at Hilton, in Cumberland, by five hundred feet of red sandstone, which, though 
perfectly conformable to the subjacent Permian rocks, he considers to belong to the 
Bunter Sandsteim of the Trias. Here, then, as in Germany, the limestone may 
have a red cover, and yet the Bunter Sandstein be intact. 


= 


eS oe 


MURCHISON—ON THE NEW TERM DYAS. 9 


irrespective, however, of the question of whether there are or are not 
localities in Germany where the Zechstein passes upwards into a red 
rock, which forms no true part of the Bunter Sandstein of the Trias, 
we have only to look to the environs of Dresden, on the one hand, 
and to Lower Silesia on the other, to see the inapplicability of the 
word “ Dyas”’ to this group. 

Near the capital of Saxony, Dr. Geinitz himself pointed out to 
me that the Rothliegende is there divided into two very dissimilar 
parts; and these, if added to the limestone which is there inter- 
polated, or to the true Zechstein of other places, constitute a Trias. 
Again, Beyrich, in his Map of Lower Silesia,* has divided the vast 
Rothliegende of those mountains into Lower and Upper, the two 
embracing eight subdivisions according to that author. 

In repeating, then, that the word “ Permian” was not originally 
proposed with the view of affixing to this natural group any number 
of component parts, but simply as a convenient short term to define 
the Uppermost Paleozoic group, I refer all geologists to the very 
words I used in the year 1841, when the name was first suggested. 
In speaking of the structure of Russia, I thus wrote :—“‘ The Car- 
boniferous system is surmounted to the east of the Volga by a vast 
series of beds of marls, schists, limestones, sandstones, and conglo- 
merates, to which I propose to give the name of ‘ Permian System,’ 
because, although this series represents as a whole the Lower New 
Red Sandstone (Rothe-todte-legende) and the Magnesian Limestone 
or Zechstein, yet it cannot be classed exactly, whether by the suc- 
cession of the strata or their contents, with either of the German or . 
British subdivisions of this age.’ + 

After pointing to the governments of Russia over which such 
Permian rocks ranged, I added:—“ Of the fossils of this system, 
some undescribed species of Producti might seem to connect the 
Permian with the Carboniferous era; and other shells, together with 
fishes and saurians, link it more closely to the period of the Zech- 
stein, whilst its peculiar plants appear to constitute a Flora of a 
type intermediate between the epochs of the New Red Sandstone or 
Trias and the Coal-measures. Hence it is that I have ventured to 
consider this series as worthy of being regarded as a system.” ¢ 

In subsequent years, having personally examined this group in 
the typical tracts of Germany as well as of Britain, I felt more than 
ever assured that, from the great local variations of mineral succes- 
sion of the group, the word “ Permian,’ which might apply to any 
number of mineral subdivisions, was the most comprehensive and 
best term which could be used, the more so as it was in harmony 
with the principle on which the term Silurian had been adopted. 

Apart from the question of the substitution of the new word 


* See also ‘Siluria,’ 2nd edit. p. 348. 

+ Phil. Mag. xix. p. 419. 

{ In my last edition of ‘ Siluria’ I have spoken of the Permian as the upper- 
most Paleozoic group, but have not deemed it a system by comparison with the 
vast deposits of Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian age. 

Vio. Vv. C 


10 THE GEOLOGIST. 


““Dyas”’ for the older name “ Permian,” I take this opportunity of 
expressing my regret that some German geologists are returning to 
the use of the term “ Grauwacke Formation,” as if years of hard 
labour had not been successfully bestowed in elaborating and esta- 
blishing the different Paleozoic groups, all of which, even including 
the Lower Carboniferous deposits, were formerly confusedly grouped 
under the one lithological term of the “ Grauwacke Formation.” 

Respecting as I do the labours of the German geologists who 
have distinguished themselves in describing the order of the strata 
and the fossil contents of the group under consideration, I claim no 
otber merit on this point for my colleagues De Verneuil and Von 
Keyserling, and myself, than that of having propounded twenty 
years ago the name of “ Permian”’ to embrace in one natural series 
those sub-formations for which no collective name had been adopted. 
Independently therefore of the reasons above given, which show the 
inapplicability of the word “ Dyas,” I trust that, in accordance with 
those rules of priority which guide naturalists, the word “ Permian” 
will be maintained in geological classification. 


London: Belgrave Square. 
Noy. 30, 1861. 


CEOCRAPHICAL 
THE GBOHOGHEH, AND CHRONOLOGICAL DISTRI- 
BUTION OF THE DEVONIAN FOSSILS OF DEVON 
AND CORNWALL. 


By W. Preneetty, F.G.S. 


The limestones, slates, and associated sandstones of North and 
South Devon and Cornwall have, as is well known, caused much 
perplexity as to their real place in the chronological series of the 
geologist. Thanks, however, to the labours of Professor Sedgwick, 
Sir R. I. Murchison, Mr. Lonsdale, and others, the problem is now 
generally admitted to be solved; the rocks in question are the re- 
presentatives or equivalents of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland 
and elsewhere; they belong to what is known as the Devonian age 
of the world. Some little difficulty, however, exists—or rather once 
existed—in the way of the full acceptance of this chronology. The 
rocks of Devonshire are crowded with the remains of invertebrate 
animals, especially shells, corals, and sponges; whilst the supposed 
contemporary deposits in Scotland and the adjacent islets are so 
rich in fossil fish that, in the language of the late Hugh Miller, 
“Orkney, were the trade once opened up, could supply with ich- 
thyolites, by the ton and the shipload, the museums of the world.’’* 
But the fossils characteristic of either of these districts are not found 
in the other ; there are no organic links connecting the two localities. 
ww 


* € Footprints of the Creator,’ p. 2. 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 11 


Scotland does not yield the mollusks or zoophytes of Devonshire, 
nor is there recorded in the latter district: more than the faintest 
trace of the ichthyolitic wealth of the North. Though this fact may 
still have difficulties connected with it, they have ceased to be 
chronological, for Sir R. I. Murchison tells us “that the same fossil 
fishes, of species well known in the middle and upper portions of the 
Old Red of Scotland, and which in large tracts of Russia lie alone 
in sandstone, are in many other places found intermixed, in the 
same bed, with those shells that characterize the group in its slaty 
and calcareous form in Devonshire, the Rhenish country, and the 
Boulonnais. This phenomenon, first brought to lght in the work 
on Russia, by myself and colleagues, demonstrates more than any 
other the identity of deposits of this age, so different in lithological 
aspect, in Devonshire on the one hand, and central England and 
Scotland on the other. The fact of this intermixture completely 
puts an end to all dispute respecting the identification of the central 
and upper masses at least of the Old Red of Scotland with the cal- 
careous deposits of Devonshire and the Eifel.”* 

In a paper “On the Slate Rocks of Devon and Cornwall,” read 
before the Geological Society of London in 1851, Professor Sedgwick 
stated his views respecting the division of these rocks into three 
groups, as follows :— 

“The first and oldest of these groups may be conveniently called 
the Plymouth group, using these words in an extended sense, so as 
to include all the limestones of South Devon, and the red sandstones 
superior to the Plymouth limestones. The equivalent to this group 
in North Devon includes, I think, the Ilfracombe and Linton lime- 
stones, as well as the red sandstones of the north coast. 

“The second group includes the slates expanded from Dartmouth 
to the metamorphic group of Start Point and Bolt Head, and is, so 
far as I know, without fossils; it may be called the Dartmouth group, 
and its equivalent in North Devon is found in the slates of Morte 
Bay, which end with beds of purple and greenish sand-rock and 
coarse greywacke. It ranges nearly east and west across the 
county. 

“The third group is not, I think, found in South Devon; but in 
North Devon it is well defined, commencing on a base line of sand- 
stone beds, which range nearly east and west from Bag gey Point (on 
the western coast) to “Marwood (which is a few miles north of Barn- 
staple), and thence towards the eastern side of the county. ‘This 
group is continued in ascending order to the slates on the north 
shore of Barnstaple Bay; but its very highest beds are seen on the 
south shore of the bay, dipping under the base of the culm measures. 

“The equivalent of this third and highest Devonian group is found 
to the south of the great culm-trough, in a group, near the top of 
which appear the limestone-bands and fossiliferous slates of Pether- 
win. It may be called the Barnstaple or Petherwin group.’ + 


a * ‘Siluria,’ 3rd edition, p. 382. 


¢* 


7 Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. vin. p. 3. 


12 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Professor Sedgwick, in the same paper, recognizes the Plymouth 
group in the slates of ‘Looe, Polperro, and Fowey, in Cornwall.* 

Accepting, at least provisionally, t this chronology, we have, when 
considered chronologically as well as geographically, what, as a mat- 
ter of convenience, may be called five fossiliferous areas; namely, a 
deposit of the age of the Plymouth group in each of the districts, 
South Devon, North Devon, and Cornwall; and one of the Barn 
staple age in each of the two latter. To avoid repetition, they will 
be spoken of throughout this paper as Lower South Devon, Lower 
North Devon, Lower Cornwall, Upper North Devon, and Upper 
Cornwall, The terms “Upper’’ and “ Lower” are to be understood 
as applied relatively to the rocks of Devon and Cornwall only, and 
not as embodying or implying any opinion respecting the co-ordina- 
tion of these rocks with deposits of the Devonian age elsewhere. 

Had existing materials warranted, it would have been desirable to 
have made a further division, nainely, one having reference to the 
mineral character of the deposits, as well as to time and place; for it 
is certain, as might have been expected, that in the same area some 
fossils are peculiar to the argillaceous beds, and others are found 
only in the calcareous strata; thus, for example, I learn from Mr. 
Godwin-Austen that he has found the remarkable coral Plewro- 
dictyum problematicum in the slates, but not in the limestones, at 
Oewell, in South Devon. My own experience is in harmony with 
this. 1 have found specimens of the same fossil in the slates at Tor- 
quay, and hundreds of them occur in rocks of the same character at 
Looe, in Cornwall, but not a trace of 1t in limestone anywhere. 
The two species of sponges belonging to the genus Steganodictyum 
of Professor M‘Coy occur in the slates along the entire coast of 
Cornwall, from Fowey Harbour to the Rame Head; at Bedruthen 
Steps in the north of the same county; and at Mudstone Bay, near 
Brixham, in South Devon; but have never been met with in eal- 
careous strata. At present, however, it would be premature to at- 
tempt a division of this kind. 

My present object is to give some account of the amount and 
character of the Devonian population of the five areas as above 
defined, when the census was last taken. The inquiry as to cha- 
racter goes no ees than to ascertain to what extent they were a 
migratory or colonizing race. 

Having spent a considerable portion of the leisure I have been 
able to command during the last twenty years in collecting and 
studying the fossils of the districts under consideration, especially 
along the entire line of coast extending from Polperro in Cornwall 
to Torbay in Devonshire, and also at South Petherwin, I have natu- 
rally been led to pay some attention to their distribution in time 
and space; and several concurring circumstances have recently 
brought the subjects more prominently before me. Amongst other 
things I may mention a passage in the recent address of Professor 


* Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. viil. p. 14. 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 13 


Phillips, as President of the Geological Society of London, and also 
one in Professor Haughton’s Appendix to the ‘ Voyage of the Fox 
in the Arctic Seas.’ Professor Phillips, when discussing the influ- 
ence of ancient currents of the sea, remarks that “only a small pro- 
portion of the fossils of North Devon occur in South Devon;’’* and 
Professor Haughton says, “I do not believe in the lapse of a long 
interval of time between the Silurian and Carboniferous deposits,— 
in fact in a Devonian period. 

“The same blending of corals has been found in Ireland, the Bas 
Boulonnais, and in Devonshire, where Silurian and Carboniferous 
forms are of common occurrence in the same localities.” + 

It should be remembered that the statement with which we have 
here to deal is, “that the blending of Silurian and Carboniferous 
corals” (the word is not fossils) “is of common occurrence in Devon- 
shire.” 

I have consulted such registers as I have been able to command, 
and have thrown so much of their contents as bear on the questions 
before us in the following tabular form; for which, of course, no 
higher value is claimed than attaches to the original documents. 

he materials have been mainly derived from Professor Morris’s 
‘Catalogue of British Fossils,’ published in 1854, in which are 
embodied the results of the labours of Mr. Lonsdale, Professors 
Phillips and M‘Coy, and Messrs. Edwards and Haime. The liberties 
taken with the ‘ Catalogue’ have been but few; such, for example, as 
the removal of the Devonian Stromatopores from the class Zoophyta 
to Amorphozoa, Spheronites tessellatus from Echinodermata also to 
Amorphozoa, and the addition of a few localities to those already 
registered. 

I have great pleasure in acknowledging the prompt and kind assist- 
ance of Mr. Salter, of the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, Lon- 
don, in certain matters on which I consulted him. 

Every geologist is, of course, aware of the numerous and elaborate 
tables and ratios introduced by Professor Phillips in his ‘ Paleozoic 
Fossils of Devon and Cornwall,’ when discussing questions akin to 
those under consideration. In the preparation of this paper the 
author has in no way made use of the valuable data these tables 
contain. 

It appears from the three left-hand columns of figures, headed 
“Totals,” Table I., that, taken together, the five areas have yielded 
three hundred and forty-seven species, belonging to ninety-seven 
genera and forty-nine families, of nine classes of animals; namely, 
three classes of the sub-kingdom Radiata, one of Articulata, and five 
of Mollusca; hence fifteen of the twenty-four classes into which the 
existing animal kingdom is commonly divided are totally unrepre- 
sented in the series, as is the entire vegetable kingdom also. It 
may be as well to state here that, in conformity with Morris’s 


* Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. p. xl. 
+ ‘ Voyage of the Fox,’ Appendix No. iv. p. 387. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


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PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 1s 


‘ Catalogue,’ the Heteropodous Mollusca are, in Table I., included in 
the class Gasteropoda. 

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the fossils of Devon and 
Cornwall do not fully represent the organisms of the Devonian age, 
as seven other classes—Pisces, Pteropoda, Cirrepedia, and Annelida, 
amongst animals, and Cellulares, Monocotyledones, and Polycotyle- 
dones amongst plants—have been found in rocks of this age else- 
where; and of these the two first and the fifth have been met with 
in other British localities. The reptiles Steganolepis and Telerpeton, 
of the Elgin Sandstone, are not enumerated here, as some doubt 
attaches to the question of their chronology, if indeed they are not 
certainly Triassic. The single articulated class, Crustacea, is by no 
means rich in any way; with one exception, all its gencra are Tri- 
lobites, and commonly contain but one species each. The most 
important class numerically is Brachiopoda, to which one hundred 
and eight species belong, that is, thirty-one per cent. of the entire 
series. The families and genera of Cephalopoda are richer in species 
than those of any other class, averaging sixteen for each family, and 
ten for each genus. 

The most striking fact in this connection is the specific abundance 
of Brachiopoda and Cephalopoda, and the paucity of the classes 
Lamellibranchiata and Gasteropoda, as compared with the numerical 
rank of the same classes in the existing Fauna. This fact will, 
perhaps, be most strikingly exhibited by the following table, which 
has been thus computed: in the left-hand column the aggregate 
number of the species of fossil mollusea found in Devon and Corn- 
wall has been put = one thousand, and the numbers belonging to 
each class computed to this; the right-hand column has been formed 
on the same principle, and is based on the data given by Forbes and 
Hanley in their ‘ History of British Mollusca.’ 


TABLE II. 
| Devonian Mollusea of | 
Devon and Existing British 
Cornwall. Mollusca. | 
BSE OZU AS ya ons vos ger vccots cokes 42 | 72 
IpraehiopoOda.. sa... fee ees 410°5 15°5 
Wamellibranchiataz:2). /c5.263. 60% 186 859°5 
GaSbenOpoda nec nice. ala saccwe cones 179 521°5 
BPA OOM Ay ccs teuglelas ies sien os | 182°5 315 
1,000 1,000 


It appears, then, that within existing British seas the Lamelli- 
branchiates are about twenty-four times more numerous specifically, 
than the Brachiopods, whilst within, what may be called, the same 
area, the latter were to the former, during the Devonian period, 


16 THE GEOLOGIST. 


somewhat more than as two to one; that is, they were then fifty 
times more abundant than at present in comparison with the other 
great class of Acephala. In like manner it is seen that, relatively to 
the Gasteropoda, the Cephalopoda were, in this early age of our 
planet, seventeen times more numerous than now. It may he added 
that, within the district under notice, the registered species of 
Devonian Bracl uopoda absolutely, and in a high ratio, exceed those 
belonging to the same classes within existing “British seas; and the 
fact is the same for the world at large. 

The five columns of Table I., headed “ Peculiar to,’ and distin- 
guished by the initials of the five areas respectively, show the number 
of fossil species which, so far as England is concerned, are peculiar 
to each; from which it appears that the fossils of Devon and Corn- 
wall have a very limited and unequal distribution. Two hundred 
and ninety-seven species, that is, eighty-five per cent. of the whole, 
are peculiar to one or other of the areas, whilst no more than fifty 
species, or scarcely fifteen per cent. of the entire series, are distri- 
buted amongst them. Lower South Devon monopolizes no fewer 
than one hundred and ninety-one species in this way, or, in other 
words, fully sixty-four per cent. of the two hundred and ninety-seven, 
species thus limited, or fifty-five per cent. of all the known Devo- 
nians of the two counties are restricted to this single area. Lower 
North Devon, on the other hand, appears to be equally remarkable 
for its fossil poverty. 

It is unnecessary to say that five areas taken two, three, four, and 
five together are capable of making twenty-six different combinations, 
namely, ten two together, ten three together, five four together, and 
one five together. The ten combinations, however, headed “‘ Common 
to,’ in Table I., are all that are required to show the distribution of 
the fifty species not confined to one single area. Nota single species 
of this ancient Fauna is common to the five areas, and only one, the 
coral Cyathophyllum celticum, is found in each of four of them. The 
well-known coral /avosites cervicornis is the only fossil found in each 
of the three contemporary deposits of Lower South and North Devon 
and Cornwall. Of two areas only, Upper North Devon and Upper 
Cornwall have the greatest, and Lower South Devon and Lower 
Cornwall the least, number in common; in the former a total of 
seventeen, and in the latter of eight species only. Dissimilar as are 
the organic distributions i these two pairs of areas, they are pro- 
bably just what might have been expected. In each pair the two 
areas are pretty closely connected geographically, and are supposed 
to be contemporary, as their names imply ; but in the former the 
mineral character is much the same in each area, and we have a 
ereater organic similarity than ordinary ; in the latter the deposits 
are very unlike—Lower South Devon being rich in limestone as well 
as slate, whilst in Lower Cornwail the fossiliferous beds are all but 
exclusiv ely argillaceous—and there are very few organic remains in 
common ; a marked instance, probably, of the influence of the mineral 
character of the ancient sea-bottom on organic existence. Though 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 17 


less varied, the fossils are frequently as numerous individually in 
the slate as in the limestone. 

It must be understood that any one of the ten columns just noticed 
shows, not the ¢otal number of species common to the areas the 
initials of which stand at its head, but simply the number at once 
common and restricted to them collectively ; thus the second of these 
columns, headed L. 8. D., L. C., shows that five species are common 
and restricted to Lower South Devon and Lower Cornwall, but in 
the third column we find one species common to them and also to 
Lower North Devon, in the fourth one common to them and to 
Upper North Devon, and in the eighth one found in each of them 
and also in Upper North Devon and Upper Cornwall; hence there 
are eight species common to the two areas instanced, five of which 
are restricted to them collectively, and three not. The same expla- 
nation applies to the other areas. The total number of species found 
in any area will be ascertained by adding the figures in all the 
columns marked “ Peculiar to’? and ‘‘Common to,” at the heads of 
which the initials of the area are found; thus, for example, a total of 
forty-seven species of Zoophyta occurs in Lower South Devon, of 
which forty are not found elsewhere in Devon and Cornwall. More- 
over, as the column marked “Species”’ shows that the two counties 
have yielded forty-nine species belonging to this class, it 1s evident 
that two of the total number have not been met with in Lower 
South Devon; and so on for the other classes and areas, as is shown 
in the five columns headed “ Totals,” and distinguished by the initials 
of the areas. Ranged according to their peculiar specific fossil 
wealth the areas stand, in descending order, thus :—Lower South 
Devon, Upper North Devon, Upper Cornwall, Lower Cornwall, and 
Lower North Devon; the order is the same when the fotal number 
of species found in them is considered, with the single exception 
that, in that case, Lower North Devon and Lower Cornwall are 
equal. 7 
"OF the three hundred and forty-seven species, sixty-seven are met 
with in various parts of continental Europe, and seven in North 
America ; six of the latter being included in the European sixty-seven, 
and one of the six is also found in New South Wales; thus making 
a total of sixty-eight species common to Devon and Cornwall and 
districts beyond the British Isles.* 

Comparatively few of the Devonian fossils of Devon and Cornwall 
appear to have been derived from the Silurian Fauna; eight species 
only—just enough to suggest a problem or two—are referable to 
that earlier period; namely, three Corals, two Brachiopods, two 
Lamellibranchiates—one from each of the sections Monomyaria and 
Dimyaria—and one Cephalopod. The three corals are Favosites fibrosa, 
Eimmonsia hemispherica, and Chonophyllum perfoliatwm. The first 
has been found in Lower Silurian rocks at Landovery, in the upper 


* See in Table I. the columns headed Eu. (continental Europe), Eu. Am. (Europe 
and America), Am, (America), Eu. Am. Au. (Europe, America,and Australia.) 
VOL. V. D 


18 THE GEOLOGIST. 


deposits of the same system in various parts of the typical Silurian 
country, in eight counties of Ireland, in Russia, and in three North 
American localities. During the Devonian era it existed in several 
parts of Devonshire, in France, and Germany. Apparently confined 
to Britain during the earliest stage of its existence, it became more 
adapted to the world, or the world to it, during the Upper Silurian 
age, when it reached the maximum of its migratory powers (by no 
means an ordinary one), and visited many distant parts then; 
declining in vigour, or satiated with travel, it retired within the 
European borders during the Devonian period, and there received 
its dismissal from the stage of life. Hmmonsia hemispherica seems 
not to have begun life quite so early as its friend which we have just 
dismissed ; its origin dates in Upper Silurian times, when it seems to 
have been confined to the area of modern America, ranging from the 
State of Ohio to Tennessee ; having outlived the Silurian period, it 
sent colonies to Spain and Britain, and greatly extended its range 
in America. Chonophyllum perfoliatum differs from the two former 
in having always lived within narrow geographical limits ; it occurs 
in Upper Silurian rocks at Wenlock, and in Devonian beds at Rams- 
ley, near Newton Abbott; but its appearance elsewhere is not re- 
corded. 

The wide geographical range of the two first of these corals would 
seem to imply hardy plastic constitutions, fitting them for distant 
travel and existence under varied circumstances; there is therefore 
nothing surprising in their extended vertical range; the second, 
however, seems to have disappeared when at the very zenith of its 
widely extended power. 

The very limited distribution in space of the last of the trio would 
scarcely suggest the thought that such an organism would be likely 
to be capable of enduring thermal and other physical changes such 
as, there are reasons for believing, considerable lapses of time imtro- 
duce into any given area, changes probably not dissimilar to those 
experienced in passing to a distant locality in any one and the same 
period. On the other hand, the well-known fossil coral Favosites 
Goldfusst occurs in Devonian rocks in Devonshire, at Nehou and 
Visé in France, at Millar in Spain, in the Oural in Russia, in the 
States of Ohio and Kentucky in North America, and in New South 
Wales; it was the most decided cosmopolite of the Fauna to which 
it belonged, the greatest traveller of its day, the earliest Devonian 
that cireumnayvigated the globe, the prototype of the Drake of a Jater 
age. lt seems to have successfully struggled with the varying con- 
ditions consequent upon change of place, and might have been ex- 
pected to be just as capable of contending with such as depend on 
lapses of time ; nevertheless, the facts do not harmonize with such 
conclusions. Chonophyllum perfoiiatum formed part of the Silurian 
and Devonian Faunas, but was confined to the British area; Fuvosites 
Goldfussi was at home in every part of the world, yet it commenced 
and terminated its career within the Devonian period. 

The rocks of Devon and Cornwall have fifty-eight species of fossils 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 19 


in common with those of the Carboniferous group, namely, six Echi- 
noderms, one Crustacean, six Bryozoons, twenty-four Brachiopods, 
four Lamellibranchiates, ten Gasteropods, and seven Cephalopods, 
but no corals or sponges ; so that it cannot be said that “there is a 
blending of Silurian and Carboniferous corals in Devonshire,” what- 
ever there may be elsewhere ; for though, as has been stated, three 
Silurian corals have been found, not one referable to the Carboniferous 
Fauna has been met with there. This assertion is made on the au- 
thority of Messrs. Edwards and Haime, who, in their monograph on 
‘The British Fossil Corals from the Mountain Limestone,’ state that 
“seventy-six species have already been found in the deposits apper- 
taiaing to this geological division, and the presence of none of these 
corals has as yet been satisfactorily proved in beds belonging to any , 
other period.”* Again, in their monograph on ‘ British Devons+rejom1 
Fossil Corals,’ they say,—‘“ Three of these Devonian fossils exist 
also in the Silurian rocks, but all the others appear to be peculiar to 
the Devonian period.”’+ This was the language, in 1853, of the 
zoophytologists selected by the Palzontographical Society to prepare 
a@ monograph on this branch of paleontology, who were thoroughly 
acquainted with the literature of the subject, and who had had access 
to almost every public and private museum and collection in the 
United Kingdom. 

The fifty-eight species which passed from the Devonian to the 
Carboniterous period are found in the three principal fossiliferous 


deposits of Devon and Cornwall, as exhibited in the following 
table :— 


TABLE III. 

Totals L.S.D. U.N.D U.C 

Welnmoderniatay coc. ss... 0 secon ee: 6 3 2 I 
( CIHTIS TE SG Be ae 1 I wee sit 
1B) OVAGE 8 ek Sar SS 6 3 2 2 
PT AUMOPONA aap, os aa s co tone ieee ays 24, 15 8 7 
Lamellibranchiata ................ 4 2 ae 2 
GASECMOPOUA... ... cweeceses entices 10 6 3 3 
Weplaloponey sie o.e sae vee oe vee oes 7 + 2 3 
58 34 17 18 


It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that the five areas have a smaller 
number of organic forms in common with one another—closely con- 
nected as they are both in space and time—than they have, as a 
whole, with Devonian deposits in continental Europe and elsewhere 
beyond the British Isles, or with the Carboniferous rocks of Ireland 
and central and northern England. 


* Monograph of British Fossil Corals,’ by Messrs. Edwards and Haime, p. 150. 
+ Ibid. p. 212. - 


20 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Table I., to which attention has so frequently been directed, repre- 
sents, so far as is at present known, the absolute distribution of the 
fossils in the two counties in which they occur; but, for purposes of 
geological chronology, it is probably of greater importance to ascer- 
tain their relative distribution, which may differ widely from that 
shown by the figures, since the various classes of animals represented 
in the fossil series were not equally rich in species, and perhaps 
differed much in, what may be called, their distributivity. 

The relative distribution is exhibited in Table 1V., which has been 
calculated from the data contained in Table I., thus: the total num- 
ber of species in each class is put = 1000, and the figures in the 
other columns equated to this. 

ftanged in descending order, according to their relative specific 
_-prevalence in each era, the classes stand thus :*+— 

Lower South Devon: Zoophyta, Amorphozoa, Crustacea, Gastero- 
pada, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Cephalopoda, Echinodermata, and La- 
mellibranchiata. 

Lower North Devon: Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, Zoophyta, and La- 
mellibranchiata. 

Lower Cornwall: Amorphozoa, Crustacea, Zoophyta, Echinoder- 
mata, Brachiopoda, and Gasteropoda. 

Upper North Devon: Lamellibranchiata, Echinodermata, Bryozoa, 
Brachiopoda, Gasteropoda, Cephaloda, Crustacea, and Zoophyta. 

Upper Cornwall: Cephalopoda, Lamellibranchiata, Gasteropoda, 
Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Crustacea, Echinodermata, and Zoophyta. 

Both relatively and absolutely each class has its maximum specific 
development in South Devon, with the exception of Lamellibranchiata 
only, which has its greatest specific variety in Upper North Devon.t 

South Devon is the only area in which each of the nine classes oc- 
curs; Lower Cornwall and Lower North Devon are each poor in 
classes as well as species, the latter yielding representatives of four 
classes only. 

When ranged in descending order, so as to show, relatively, the 
transmission of species from the Devonian to the Carboniferous era, 
the classes stand thus:—Bryozoa, Echinodermata, Brachiopoda, 
Gasteropoda, Cephalopoda, Crustacea, and Lamellibranchiata. And 
when similarly arranged for the species derived from the Silurian 
Fauna, they take the following order :—Zoophyta, Lamellibranchiata, 
Cephalopoda, and Brachiopoda. 

The class Amorphozoa is the only one in the Devonian Fauna 
which does not contain either Silurian or Carboniferous species. 

From Table _V. it appears that fifty-six genera are peculiar to one or 
other of the three areas Lower South Devon, Upper North Devon, 
and Upper Cornwall ; and that, of these, forty-six, or very nearly one- 
half the total ninety-seven, are restricted to Lower South Devon. 
No genus is confined to Lower North Devon or Lower Cornwall. 


* See in Table IV. the columns headed “ Totals.” 
t See in Tables I. and IV. the columns headed “ Totals.”’ 
+ See in Table LV. the columns headed “ Silurian” and ‘‘ Carboniferous.” 


21 


AND CORNWALL. 


OF DEVON 


FOSSILS 


PENGELLY 


OFT 1G POL 
eIg| ee rai 
ce IF ce free | eee [ope 
666 |6L alt ae Ons 98 
epg | (fe | ot | Ite 
16 | 77 116 
OOF | | SIL 
“179 1106 (06 |68 |[L9E 
Abs Vata fee trae 
Q) Bip ay ayy ay) ag 
BE fay] nor 

° cp “Un 

Be es 

a 

© 

fa 


OL NoWwNOQ 


“TIVMNYOO GNV NOAWC AO STISSOA NVINOATG AHL JO ‘AOVdS CNV AWIL NI ‘NOILNAGINISIG ZAIZYTZA AHL DNIMOHS 


“STVLOT, 


‘ann “q'°N‘T 


a0) “ <i Naa are Yat | xT AS T 


ap {Tz 

IZ ISP 

“106 (LP 

6L {4g [go | 7 
= 16. 
LP 

A ee a Sb nt 

mil} m|m| wm 

OS; S; S|, 

G4}q;qj Fe 

4) OQ} 4} P 

~) Sila 

q 4 

3 6 


oL NOWWOD 


‘AT GTaVib 


re) Ty “¢q sINToe ate “¢ "g Ty 


6 OP 
 & 
LG ees 
LPF |0G 
JHU lee 
aa 

me | mn 

BP] 

Sms 

a| 

o 


py pa PoreosecrcocannG “epo doyeyda 9 


099 Becveecesseeeasooovcs epodoa1eqsey 
908 eoecvccccceces BqyelpouRIqiyouey 
Les eeercovcccceresvenvoe epodomoerg 
cad ee oeeesce sevscveoveecscocs eoz0kig 
9¢9 Sooecesceeocseesseeneen,g, eoovysnig 
LOF poeccecoe nes ccoes B\eUlLopouLyony 
9T8 Seeceerccgesscessceserccge ey hqdoo7z, 
SLL eeerccccnercccceracce eozoydioury 


OL UVITAOTT 


"SHSSVIO 


22 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The fifty-six genera thus limited are generally poor in species, the 
aggregate number belonging to them being no more than ninety-two ; 
that is, fifty-eight per cent. of all the genera contain no more than 
twenty-six per cent. of the total number of species. Forty-one of 
these fifty-six genera contain each but a single species in the British 
Devonian deposits. The only genera thus limited that can be said to 
be rich in species are Stromatopora, Acervularia, and Clymenia. The 
first, a genus of Amorphozoons, contains five species, all limited to 
South Devon; the second, a group of corals belonging to the great 
Paleozoic family Cyathophyllide, contains five species, all peculiar to 
South Devon; and the last, a genus of Cephalopod mollusks belonging 
to the family Nautilide, contains eleven species, all found at South 
Petherwin, not one being met with elsewhere in Britain. With the 
single exception of Cyrtoceras rusticum, found at South Petherwin— 
and this probably a synonym for Orthoceras arcuatum—the genus 
Cyrtoceras is restricted to South Devon, where it is represented by 
twelve species. 

The distribution of the ninety-seven genera of fossils found in the 
two counties is exhibited in the following table :— 


TABLE V. 
l 
PECULIAR TO | Torats. | 
: Be | 
Z | 
| 
a | | 
sila] a A lA | A > 
Belew ec || Spain ie tele n) St o i S 
a) a sida (5 |) |) aoe 
Amorphozoa ......... Ape ea Lae | 
“Zoopliyta {3s3. sc. 5. ss 20 || 14 Ue ee 3 
Echinodermata ...... 6 2 3 3 |... ] ee 
Crastacea.....0)..... SN iisaae oie | OL a eam ee | 
BTVOZORE. So. cese kod (pape) 1). 5 pT pa | os | 2 
Brachiopoda ......... 16 || 6 | se | as |p RO) aa So 
Lamellibranchiata...|_ 17 2 3) 1] ND ee oe ic Aa 
Gasteropoda ......... \4 (fe |r eee sarees Westies [Bee ge Danse |= Vite ee 
Cephalopoda ......... Bypee joe fee foe | Py 4]. | we | E 
97 || 46 7/3 83 8 | 8 | 34 | 33 | 
56 a1 | 
7 = | 


Every genus of the classes Amorphozoa, Zoophyta, and Brachiopoda 
occurs in South Devon, and with the exception of Cephalopoda it 
contains a greater number of genera in each class than either of 
the other areas. All the genera of Cephalopoda appear at South 
Petherwin. 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 23 


The genera found in the two counties were not all confined to the 
Devonian period. The following table shows their Chronological dis- 
tribution so far as the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous deposits 
of Britain are concerned. 


TABLE VI. 
= 3 ComMMON TO 
el g . 
= a 5 Ze Sipe 
3 a Ss, Sr eh og 
> == aa 5S = oS 
A | a Se ioe | a6 
= J Sse lelors) |) ese 
E Se 
iS 3 92 | RAM | 8A 
a = = S) S) 
Amorphozoa ......... 4 3 1 sts 
ZOOPLA ose eaie mdse: 20 10 5) 3 2 
Echinodermata ..,... 6 2 oe 3 ll 
@rustaced oe. ea: 8 i 5 eed 2 
IBGVOZ0N. ke. s eos ff ee 5 2 
Brachiopoda ..,...... 16 3 2 8 3 
Lamellibranchiata...| 17 2 1 9 5 
Gasteropoda ......... 14 2 11 1 
Cephalopoda......... 5 iL 2 2 
Botalsin s:.chzs2 97 24 14 Al 18 


From which it appears that twenty-four genera,—about one-fourth 
of the whole series,—are peculiar to Devonian deposits, fourteen 
common and restricted to the Silurian and Devonian, forty-one com- 
mon to all three, and eighteen common and restricted to the Devonian 
and Carboniferous; hence a total of fifty-five Devonian genera occur 
in the preceding, and fifty-nine in the succeeding period. Some of 
the genera occur in Neozoic deposits, and a few in the existing 
Fauna. 

When the numbers of species contained in each of the forty-one 
genera of the fourth column (Table VI.) are tabulated in parallel 
columns for the three periods, the figures present themselves in four 
different principal forms of succession, as may be illustrated by taking 
the genera Favosites, Cyathophyllum, Loxonema, and Orthoceras. 


Sil. Dev. Carb. 


HAV OSIECSH cs. ces .cs +++ c0 8 5 1 a descending-descending series. 
Cyathophyllum ......... 9 14 8 ascending-descending. 
Moonee ore fee 2 8 14 ascending-ascending. 
DEtMOCENIS AF carats aie bora 55 12 385 descending-ascending. 


The first kind shows that the maximum specific development occurs 
im the Silurian era, the second in the Devonian, and the third in the 
Carboniferous ; the fourth kind may perhaps be regarded as a sort 


24, THE GEOLOGIST. 


of irregularity, possibly arising from the imperfection of the geolo- 
gical record. There are eighteen instances of this in the series. 

There is a fifth form of successional order which may be illustrated 
by the figures connected with the genus Alveolites, which stand 
thus :—Sil. 4, Dev. 4, and Carb. 2, thus giving no maximum in any 
one period. ‘There are three instances of this. 

The genera of the Devoniau period are, as a whole, comparatively 
poor in species, and but few of those common to it and either the 
Carboniferous or Silurian, or both, have their maximum specific de- 
velopment during Devonian times. 

The following table exhibits, generally, the prominent facts of the 
kind just specified. 


TABLE VII. 
GuNERA. Totals. Species in a | Specific. 
| PNET | Development in 
| Sil. | Dev.| Car. |} Sil. | Dev.| Car, || Sil. Dev. | Car. 
Peculiar to Devonian...... 24 Oe ae = Ba ere We 
Common to,— 
Silurian and Devonian .| 14 56: BOI cl 4cch. Seale 9 2 ee 
Silur., Dev., and Carb.| 41 || 386] 223) 510 || 9°4| 5-4) 12°4)) 13 2| 23 
Devonian and Carb. ...| 18 Del AONE O FAs loo let Lah tio ee 2| 12 
Totals ee 97 || 442|347/781|| 8 | 36| 13] 22] 6| 33 


The “ Totals” in the left-hand column are the same as in Table VI. 
The three coluinns headed “Species in’ show the aggregate number 
of species found in each period belonging to the total number of 
genera on the same horizontal line in the column of “ Totals ;” thus 
three hundred and eighty-six species have been found in British 
Silurian rocks, two hundred and twenty-three in Devonian, and five 
hundred and ten in Carboniferous belonging to the forty-one genera 
common to the three periods, and so on. The three columns headed 
“‘Species+ Genera” show the average number of species per genus 
in each period and division, and are obtained by dividing the total 
number of species by the total number of genera in each (fractions 
being omitted except when considerable); thus the averages in the 
case of the forty-one genera common to the three periods are 9:4 
Silurian, 5°4 Devonian, and 12-4 Carboniferous. The total averages 
at the bottom of these three columns are obtained thus :—Of the 
ninety-seven Devonian genera, fifty-five (= 14 + 41) are found in 
Silurian beds, and these have yielded an aggregate of four hundred 
and forty-two (= 56 + 386) species, giving an average of eight per 
genus, and so on for the other periods. The right-hand three columns 
show the number of genera, which in the various divisions have their 
maximum speeific development m each period; for example, of the 
forty-one genera common to the three periods, thirteen had their 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 25 


greatest number of species in Silurian, two in Devonian, and twenty-_ 
three in Carboniferous times; thus giving a total of thirty-eight, and, 
consequently, leaving three genera which had not a maximum specific 
development in any one period. 

lt appears, then, that the genera found in the Devonian era, as 
represented in Devon and Cornwall, even when those peculiar to it 
are included, yield a less aggregate number of species, that the ave- 
rage number of species per genus is smaller, and that the genera 
haying their maximum specific development are fewer in Devonian 
than in either Silurian or Carboniferous times, and that in each of 
these particulars the Carboniferous surpasses the Silurian age. 

Such appear to be the prominent facts in connexion with the sub- 
ject immediately before us. What is their interpretation? This is 
a problem more easily proposed than solved. Are we to believe that 
our knowledge of the geological record is too imperfect to warrant 
any important generalizations ? Do our museums fully represent the 
fossilized remains of bygone forms of life? Are all the extinct organ- 
isms which have been exhumed registered in the published lists? Is 
the record itself, inscribed on rocky tablets, so incomplete as to be 
altogether incapable of revealing to us the physical and organic his- 
tory” of our planet? Are the notions of biologists respecting specific 
distinctions, whatever they may be, sufficientl y mature and uniform 
to warrant our relying on them ? Something must doubtless be con- 
ceded on each of these points, but still there cannot but be a large 
outstanding quantity of fact incapable of being thus explained away. 
The problem demands some other solution. 

Suppose it true that in some cases the organic dissimilarity which 
has been described was due to a difference in the mineral character 
of the ancient sea-bottom, such as was mentioned in the case of 
Lower South Devon and Lower Cornwall; still, when we have two 
areas, like Lower South and Lower North Devon, consisting of con- 
temporary, almost contiguous, and scarcely dissimilar deposits, one 
rich and the other poor in the variety of its organic remains, having 
together two hundred and four species with no more than eight in 
common, some other solution is obviously required. Was there a 
terrestrial barrier separating the two areas? Was the central dis- 
trict oceupied by dry land, stretching far both east and west, while 
the waves of the Devonian ocean rolled over the north and south of 
the county? for it need not be stated that the deposits we are con- 
sidering are eminently marine. It may be too muc} to answer this 
question with an unqualified negative; it is easier to determine, at 
jieast, some of the ancient oceanic areas than to say where lay the 
contemporary continents and islands. Nevertheless, the rocks now 
separating the areas in question, namely, the granites, the carboni- 
ferous beds, and the red conglomerates (or, more correctly, breccias), 
are unquestionably more modern than those now under notice; nor 
is the structure of the latter such as to imply the immediate proxi- 
mity of dry land in that quarter. 

Besides, eight species actually did migrate from one area to the 

VOL: v. E 


3) 


2G TILE GEOLOGIST. 


other—eight proofs, then, that a passage did exist, unless we suppose 
that both areas were tenanted from some more distant centre or 
centres of organic dispersion. It may be asked, were not these eight 
remnants of an older—a Silurian—fauna, forms of life whose locali- 
zation had been determined by still earlier conditions ? Eight Silu- 
rian forms’ do make their appearance amongst the fossils of Devon 
and Cornwall—are not these the very organisms ? Now it so happens 
that they are not. The Silurians spoken of are Favosites jfibrosa, 
Emmonsia hemispherica, Chonophyllum perfoliatum, Atrypa aspera, 
A. reticulatus, Pterinea ventricosa, Clidophorus ovatus, and Ortho- 
ceras Sapien) whilst the species common to Lower North and 
South Devon are Fuvosites cervicornis, F. dubia, Fenestella arthritica, 
Stringocephalus Burtini, Spirifer aperturatus, ‘Sp. levicosta, Or this 
granulosa, and Chonetes sordida. In fact, there is not one Silurian 
form recorded amongst the Lower North Devon series. This solu- 
tion, therefore, does not seem available. Shall we hold with Professor 
Phillips that “this unegual diffusion of definite forms of life may 
often be ascribed to oceanic currents” ?* I cannot but think that 
fewer difficulties attach to this than to any other hypothesis which 
has been proposed ; it simply requires us to suppose that a persistent 
oceanic stream, flowing through central Devon, separated the con- 
temporary deposits of the north and south, and, by its thermal or 
other qualities, formed an ali but impeneti able barrier to the marine 
tribes. Moreover, whilst it would account for the limited organic 
distribution we are considering, it would not be out of keeping “with 
the facts that a comparatively great number of species were common 
to continental Europe and Devon and Cornwall; that of the fifty- 
eight species which passed over to the next succeeding Fauna, cne 
only occurs in the ecarboniferous shales of North Devon, whilst all 
the others are found in central and northern England, Treland, Bel- 
gium, Russia, and other distant localities ; and that a comparatively 
great number of forms are common to the upper areas of Cornwall 
and North Devon. 

Though, as we have seen, the test entireiy fails, at least so far as 
Devonshire is concerned, on which scepticism respecting the existence 
of a Devonian period has been founded, namely, “that the blending 
of Silurian and Carboniferous corals is of common occurrence,”’ yet if 
the word “ fossil” is substituted for “ coral,” a blending of the’ kind 
certainly does occur, and doubtless the fact is not without a meaning. 
Eight species from the preceding period, and fifty-eight from the 
suceeeding—a total of sixty-six—meet in Devon and Cornwall. 
Are they so many proofs that the rocks in which they were inhumed 
are not Devonian? It must be borne in mind that there are two 
hundred and eighty-one species that are neither Silurian nor Carbo- 
niferous, but of an intermediate character. The paleontological 
argument, then, stands thus:—There are sixty-six witnesses sup- 
posed to testify that the rocks are not Devonian, and two hundred 
and eighty-one—upwards of 4 to 1—which emphatically declare that 


* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xvi. p. xl. 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 27 


they are. But the adverse witnesses are by no means agreed amongst 
themselves ; eight of them claim the rocks for the Silurian age, and 
fifty-eight for the Carboniferous. Is there no way of silencing, and 
yet satisfying, these doubtful characters? No method of so inter- 
preting their testimony but that of sacrificing the Devonian system 
altogether ? Are they not so many arguments in favour of the gradual 
passage of system into system? So many difficulties in the wav of 
a belief in catastrophes, by which I mean convulsion or other form 
of violence (call it what you please) which, from time to time, shook 
the very life out of the world, causing a series of universal and syn- 
chronous depopulations of our planet? May we not regard them as 
so many tints intermediate, both in place and quality, between the 
extreme bands of the rainbow, uniting them into one beautifully 
graduated chromatic spectrum, so softly blending as to render it im- 
possible to define the exact place of lines of demarcation, which, per- 
haps, have not, and never would have been supposed to have, an ex- 
istence, had not observers hastily generalized from the imperfect 
evidence obtained during a period of colour blindness? 

May we not regard them as just sixty-six pages in the old parish 
register connecting three otherwise unconnected portions, and sliow- 
ing that the population was not, during their time, cut off sharply, 
universally, and at once, whether by pestilence, war, or famine; but 
that the old inhabitants gradually disappeared, and that many of 
them remained amongst the new comers, discharging their accus- 
tomed functions under the somewhat changed conditions ? 

But if the Devonshire rocks were handed over to the Carboniferous 
or Silurian system, or divided between them, we should not be quit 
of the doctrine that some of the forms of one period have, at least 
in some instances, lived through it into the next; for the opponents 
of a Devonian period not only admit, but rest their case on the 
alleged fact that Silurian and Carboniferous forms are found blended 
together in Devonshire and elsewhere. 

When, nearly a quarter of a century ago, Mr. Lonsdale first sug- 
gested that the fossils of South Devon, taken as a whole, exhibited a 
peculiar character intermediate to those of the Silurian and Carboni- 
ferous groups, he was perfectly aware that amongst them were forms 
referable to each of these Faunas; yet he made the suggestion, not- 
withstanding the existence of a physical objection, subsequently 
removed by Professor Sedgwick and Sir R. I. Murchison, who dis- 
covered that the culmiferous or anthracite shales of North Devon 
(superposed on the rocks we have been considering) “belonged to 
the coal, and not, as preceding observers had imagined, to the tran- 
sition (Silurian) period.”’* 

And what has been the effect of the progress of discovery and 
nicer discrimination on this point? Has it increased or decreased 
the evidence in favour of a Devonian period? In 1846, Sir H. De la 
Beche, discussing this question, gave a total of a hundred and ninety 
species noticed in South Devon, which he thus disposed of: seventy- 


* Lyell’s ‘ Manual,’ 5th edition, p. 424. 


38 THE GEOLOGIST. 


five Carboniferous forms, ten Silurian, eight common to-Silurian and 
Carboniferous, and ninety-seven—slightly more than half—peculiar 
to Devonshire.* At present (confining ourselves also to South 
Devon) the catalogue gives a total of two hundred and twenty-six, 
of which thirty-four are Carboniferous, six Silurian, and a hundred 
and eighty-six peculiar to the district; or putting the totais at 
each period = 1000, and equating the other numbers to this, the 
figures stand as in the following table, and show a decided advance 
Devonian-ward. 


TABLE VIII. 
1846. 1860 
Silurian ee eens ase eee eee. 53 26°5 
Warbomiferousi.-.. eee 395 | 150°5 
Silurian and Carboniferous...... 42 0:0 
Peculiates: Ma eee 510 | 823°0 
1000 | 1000 


Doubtless the fact that the Carboniferous forms so greatly out- 
number the Silurian has a meaning. Does not this greater organic 
affinity betoken a closer connection with the more modern than with 
the more ancient period? Is it not an intimation that the lowest 
beds of Devonshire do not constitute the basement of the Devonian 
system ?—that the county has an ample development of Upper and 
Middle, but not of Lower Devonian rocks ?- 

Hitherto we have accepted the opinion of Professor Sedgwick re- 
specting the Petherwin and Barnstaple beds; namely, that they are 
strictly contemporary, and constitute the uppermost division of the 
Devonian system. It may, perhaps, be well, before closing this 
paper, to go somewhat fully into the arithmetic of the question. 

A glance at Table IX. will show the number of fossil species and 
genera found in the two areas. 


TABLE IX. 


PETHERWIN. BARNSTAPLE. 


Gen. | Spec. | Gen. | Spec. 


POOPY TR ea \oe nn sesess cy 3 3 1 1 
Echinodermata ......... 1 it 4 6 
Chustidcea: is crit etcacace’ 2 2 1 1 
Bryozoa . eh nici 2 2 3 3 
Brachiopoda............ 7 20 8 26 
Lamellibranchiata...... ff 14 8 21 
Gasteropoda ............ 6 9 7 10 
Cephalopoda... ......... 5 21 2 8 

Motals. kegs tasdictics 33 72 34 76 


* Memoirs Geol. Survey, vol. i. p. 96. 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 29 


Petherwin appears to have been richer than Barnstaple in Zoo- 
phyta and Cephalopoda, but poorer in Echinodermata and Lamelli- 
branchiata; whilst neither of the areas has yielded any fossil 
sponges. 

Assuming the higher antiquity of the South Devon and contempo- 
rary beds—to which, probably, no geologist will object—it follows 
that the fossils common to it and Petherwin, or Barnstaple, or both, 
were contributions from it to them. Regarded thus, the populations 
of the two areas were made up as is shown below. 


TABLE X. 
| | 
| PerHEeRwin. | BarNSTAPLE. 
STG TE eae ea i oe Sp. l Sp. 1 
Trower Devomlanics,. 2:e60. 60000: esis ac eike 
New (peculiar) 2.5 seek sn osav' » 44 et! 
New (common)..........-+...+-- LD ee 
CarbonilerGus .......se00seceen Pt he eG 


The term “ peculiar,” in the table, is meant to denote such species 
as, in England, are found in Petherwin or Barnstaple only; and 
“common” to mark those found in both, but not elsewhere in the 
British Isles; “carboniferous” is used to designate the species 
common to the deposits of that age and Petherwin, or Barnstaple, or 
both; exclusive of six found also in Lower Devonian deposits. It 
may be remarked here that no fossil occurring in South Devon, Pe- 
therwin and Barnstaple, appears to have been found in Carboniferous 
rocks. 

The Carboniferous figures 138 and 16 in Table X. are not in 
addition to the previous numbers in the Table; the totals—72 and 
76 respectively—are, of course, complete without them. 

In order to show the relative value of the figures just given, the 
following Table has been calculated on the method of putting each 
total 72 and 76 equal to 1000, and equating the other figures 
in Table X. to it. 1t should be remembered, however, that whilst 
this furnishes better data for comparison, it considerably magnifies 
the facts. 


TABLE XI. 


PETHERWIN. BARNSTAPLE. 


SVT Ce San eee alee ae Sp. 14 Sp. 13 


Lower Devonian ................ e208 se AL 
iNew? (peculian)smeaty .55.5. 5h; ae GUT 21658 
News (Common) ees is csaloc oi) LOT me lee: 
Carboniferaus 3) 23... seve sy toil aoe 


The Silurian figures are, of course, quite valueless further than as 


30 THE GEOLOGIST. 


showing the very slender organic connection between the deposits 
under notice and those of the Silurian age. A glance at the Table 
shows that, of the two, Petherwin is the nearest to the Lower Devo- 
nian horizon, and the most remote from the Carboniferous; true, the 
majority in each case 1s but small—208 to 171, and 211 to 181—but 
it must be remembered that great ones were not expected; and that, 
feeble as they are individually, there is strength in the fact that their 
testimonies agree; if they mean anything, it is that the Barnstaple 
beds are somewhat more modern than those of Petherwin; a conclu- 
sion to which more than one eminent geologist has been led by other, 
and, perhaps, more reliable evidence. 

The fossils of the two areas belong to forty-six genera, of which 
_ thirty-three are represented by the Petherwin, and thirty-four by the 
Barnstaple series, twenty-one are common to both; hence twelve are 
peculiar to Petherwin, and thirteen to Barnstaple. The South Devon 
and contemporary beds contain sixty-four genera, of which thirteen 
only occur in the deposits now under notice. 

Taken as a whole, the forty-six genera above mentioned have a 
Carboniferous, rather than a Silurian, or even a Lower Devonian 
facies. They may be divided into, groups, namely, 1st, those characte- 
rized by a considerable maximum specific variety or development in 
some one period before or after Petherwin and Barnstaple times, that 
is, during the Silurian or Lower Devonian eras on the one side, or 
the Carbouiferous on the other; 2nd, those that are not thus dis- 
tinguished. For example, the rich genus Orthoceras had, in Britain, 
an almost equal number of species in Carboniferous and Upper 
Silurian times, when it was richest; hence it had no one period of 
maximum specific variety, and consequently belongs to the second of 
the groups just defined; as, of course, do also all ‘other genera simi- 
larly characterized, as well as those, such as Hallia, which seems 
never to have pads more che a very fom species at any one time. 

The first of tl hich alone we have to consider here— 
contains thirty-one genera, of which six may be said to belong to the 
Past, and twenty- -five to the Future, the age of Petherwin and Barn- 
staple being the chronological stand- point. 

The first, or “ Past’’ division, does not contain a number sufiici- 
ently great to be of service in this inquiry. The last, or “ Future, 
consists of two series, namely, Ist, those genera which are equally 
represented in the two sets of beds; ; and Ondly, t those that are not; 
evidently the last series alone can supply information on the question 
under consideration. It is made up of the fifteen genera named in the 
following table, in which the columns headed P., B., C., exhibit the 
number of species, belonging to each genus, which occur in the 
Petherwin, Barnstaple, and British Carboniferous beds respectively. 

From the table we learn that nine of these genera are found in 
Barnstaple only, or are more largely represented there than in Pe- 
therwin ; and that nineteen species represent the ten genera found 
in the former area, and no more than ten the six genera of the 
latter. Hence, the genera tell us what the species had told us be- 


9 


PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. | lL 


fore, that the Barnstaple beds are somewhat more modern than those 
of Petherwin. 


TABLE XII. 


GENERA. 12 B. C. 

PASTA LENA a sake Rain crs us 1 5) 
OyatWOerimMs’ is 065 asap) o selene 1 10 
Rentremites: 2h .os2. cacseoscace ste 1 i 
GilaneconOmerss each ore Oe ao ] 5 
enestella Wesel. 0. cess heen 1 beg 19 
Chonetese ys 4052: Pea? ca 2 16 
ESR MITCHUS Heirs, ess? ose tl. Saas ] 3 48 
IM ICCCIYG) Re SE care COR 1 16 
ACKAINUS UE epee ne, «cle gia ial rs 9 
Wyprlcardidwtet he cee. ees it 1 9 
IN icul eee te Narn ee 4 14 
Sap euin lites: sedey.c oc Soostes . 2 15 
oxi ema nto ecc hots a it 14 
Macrocheilts) 2o.0.5..4.4.4<-508: rick 1 16 
IN UMIINS eee ch cas BA eee haan ae ] hae 40 
10 19 24.7 


We are prepared, by even a slight acquaintance with the geogra- 
phical distribution of existing organisms, to find that deposits strictly 
contemporary, lithologically similar, and closely connected geographi- 
eally, have certain fossils peculiar to each; but, unless we recognize 
time as a factor, it will be difficult to explain the following striking 
results in Petherwin and Barnstaple. ‘Together they have yielded as 
many as one hundred and thirty-one species of fossils, yet have no 
more than seventeen in common; the fossils belong to forty-six 
genera, of which twenty-five are confined to one or other of the two 
areas, having amongst them the rich genus Clymenva, with its eleven 
species all closely restricted, in Britain, to Petherwin, yet occurring 
in continental Europe. The remaining twenty-one genera are re- 
presented by eighty-six species, but the representatives are rarely 
identical in the two areas, the peculiar being to the common as 
69 to 17, that is,as 4 to 1. Contend that these beds are strictly 
centemporary, and the facts remain to puzzle; grant but the lapse 
of time, and, at least, part of the difficulty disappears, and thereby 
furnishes another argument in favour of the opinion now advocated. 

Returning for a moment to Tables X. and XI., it will be seen that 
the Barnstaple have a smaller number of fossils in common with the 
Lower Devonian, and even the Petherwin beds, than with the Carbo- 
niferous ; hence they may be considered as belonging rather to the 
last than to the Devonian series, or, possibly, may have to be re- 
garded as “ passage beds”’ between them. 


oe THE GEOLOGIST. 


ON SOME POINTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE 
SKULL OF FOSSIL MUSK-DEER (Cuainotherium). 


By Craries Carter Braxe, Esq. 


While examining lately the magnificent collection of fossil musk- 
deer, from Auvergne, in the collection of the British Maseum, in the 
case devoted to the specimens collected by M. Bravard from the 
lacustrine calcareous marls of Puy-de-Déme, a singular anomaly in 
the structure of the crania of the genus ainotherium met my view. 
All the writers who have described the osteology of the skull of 
~ Ruminants have noticed those singular deficiencies or lacune which 
exist at the points of junction of the various bones, and which have 
been variously described as “ lacrymal openings’’* or “ facial inter- 
spaces.’ + Their function has been unknown, and their presence, 
although constant in each individual species, is variable in species 
nearly allied to each other. In the Cainotherium commune, Bra- 
vard (Microtherium Renggeri), nearest allied to the Hyomoschus of 
the present day, ossification at this lacrymal point of intersection 
has extended to a much less degree than in its living analogue. The 
interspace in Cainotherium 1s longer in proportion to its breadth than 
the existing musk-deer (oschus chrysogaster). In the Dorcatherium 
Nauti, Kaup., on the contrary, not the slightest interspace is exhibited, 
and the lacrymal angle is definitively closed. In some of the speci- 
mens named Cainotherium in the British Museum, no interspace 
exists. These probably belong to a separate species,{ as De Blain- 
ville remarks on the typical Cainotherium commune, termed by him 
Anoplotheriwm laticurvatum, that it possesses “ des lacunes sous-laery- 
males assez grandes, en forme de longues virgules.” 

It is most interesting to observe a similar anomalous diversity of 
structure exists in the recent species of ruminants most nearly allied 
to the Moschide and Microtheria. 

I need only call attention to the fact that a large lacrymal opening 
is present in the Llama (Awchenia Llama), and none in the Vicuna 
(A. Vicuna); that in the yellow-bellied musk (A/oschus chrysogaster) 
a large, and in the small water-musk of Western Africa (Hyomoschus 
aquaticus) a small interspace exists; whilst in the nearly allied 
Meminna Indica, Pragulus Stanleyanus, and TL. pygmeus, ossification 
has extended over the whole point of junction of the lacrymal (73), 
frontal (11), nasal (15), maxillary (21), and premaxillary (22) bones. 

The object of my present communication is to point out some of 
the reasons for this singular anomalous structure in the fossil and 
recent Moschide. 


* Gray, ‘Catalogue of Mammalia’ in collection of British Museum, part 3. 

+ Spencer Cobbold,‘‘ Ruminantia,” in Todd’s, ‘ Cyclopeedia of Anatomy and Physi- 
ology,’ p. 513. 

t De Blainville, ‘“ Ostéographie,” Anoplotherium, p. 75. 


BLAKE—ON SKULLS OF FOSSIL MUSK-DEER. 33 


The functional interpretation of this singular diversity of organiza- 
tion in animals otherwise so nearly allied to each other, may not be 
manifestly apparent to the philosophical zoologist. It was satisfac- 
torily ascertained in the year 1836* by the observations of Messrs. 
Bennett, Owen, Ogilby, and Hodgson, that the suborbital sinus sub- 
served a purpose connected with the generative functions, being 
dilated and swollen at certain periods of the year. But the connec- 
tion of the development of the glandular structure of the carneous 
lacrymal sinus with the degree of ossification to which the cheek- 
bones extend is not obvious. If however we suppose that the large 
periodical swelling which, according to Mr. Hodgson, forms a huge 
lump of flesh bigger than, and lke in shape to, the yolk of an 
ege, increases periodically in its dimensions, its backward pres- 
sure towards the cheek-bone would be seriously impeded by a bony 
wall, such as we find in the Tragulus pygmeus or the Auchenia Vicuna. 
The aponeurotic fascia which fills the lacrymal interspace in the 
Hyomoschus aquaticus, or the Auchenia Huanaca, would, however, 
yield more easily, and thus those species would in certain seasons 
have a greater development of their suborbital sinuses. 

Mr. Ogilbyt laid down the theory “as a general remark, which 
however he stated was not universal, that in intertropical animals 
the lacrymal sinus is larger than in more northern species, and in 
those whose range is limited to mountainous districts.” This incom- 
plete induction may be considered partially corroborated by the oste- 
ology of the Llamas: In the three varieties, Guanaco, Llama, and 
Alpaca, a more or less large “sublacrymal lacuna” is left. In the 
Vicufia, ossification has extended to such a degree as to close this 
completely up. How does this singular fact bear upon the theory 
that there is a relation between the gregarious habits of those ante- 
lopes and musk-deer which frequent the plains, and the presence of 
the lacrymal sinuses, and consequent non-ossification of the cheek- 
bones? The species of Auwchenia which has no lacuna, is confined 
to the most elevated table-lands of Bolivia and Northern Chile. The 
three varieties in which large lacune are exhibited, are found over the 
whole Andian range, the Guanaco supporting life alike under the 
tropical sky of New Granada, or the frozen steppes of Patagonia. 
Tn this species we find a large development of the lacrymal inter- 
space. But both the Guanaco and Vicufia are gregarious. It is 
therefore quite clear that the development of the lacrymal sinus, or 
the degree to which the lacrymal and other cheek-bones are ossified, 
have no reference whatever to the gregarious or solitary habits of the 
species. This was sufficiently proved by the table which was sub- 
mitted by Professor Owen to the Zoological Society (Proceedings, 
1836, p. 36), in which it was conclusively shown that no constancy 
or correlation existed with respect to the presence or absence of the 
suborbital sinuses. And the facial interspace seems an equally in- 


* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, p. 34. 
+ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, p. 38. 


MOT: Vs FE 


34 THE GEOLOGIST. 


constant character in the antelopes, as differentiating various sub- 
genera or natural groups. 

‘If any philosophical thinker can explain what is the vera causa 
which has provided for the Cainotherium and Guanaco deep pre- 
orbital interspaces, whilst in their congeners the Dorcatherium and 
Vicufia, no such interspace exists, a character originally pointed out 
by Dr. Ag E. Gray, and which according to my experience is the sole 
specific difference which ean be demionseeacd: such explanation will 
be of great benefit to zoological science. The above observations 
are made solely with a view of suggesting further inquiry on this 
most interesting topic. I trust that some of those writers who have 
so carefully studied the osteology of Ruminantia, may be led to re- 
consider the gees aoe and to make further observations on the func- 
tion of the facial interspaces in both recent and fossil ruminants. 

It has been suggested to me, that the two holes in the Aerothe- 
rium skull, as they are undoubtedly asymmetrical, might have been 
produced artificially or accidentally, the bone at this place being ex- 
ceedingly thin. Should such a theory be proved correct, the Aficro- 
theriwm of the Auvergne deposit would still find its nearest analogue 
in the existing Meminna of Ceylon, and by the demonstration of this 
affinity, still further corroborate the truth of Professor Owen’s gene- 
ralization,—‘“ The affinity of the Microtheres to the Cheorotains is 
nevertheless very close” (Paleontology, 2nd ed. p. 372). 


ON THE DISCOVERY OF HUMAN AND ANIMAL BONES 
IN HEATHERY BURN CAVE, NEAR STANHOPE. 


By Joun Exuxuiort, Esa. 


In a tolerably deep ravine, surrounded by trees and brushwood 
growing in wild profusion, was, until lately, a cave, in that member of 
the carboniferous formation locally called the “ Great Limestone,” and 
situated about one mile and a quarter north from the town of Stan- 
hope, in the county of Durham. The limestone is now being worked 
for the purpose of supplying the Weardale Iron Company with a 
flux used in the operation of smelting tbeir ironstone ; and conse- 
quently the cave has been laid bare to ‘the light of day. 

The cave was much visited a few years ago, both by strangers and 
persons living in the locality, but probably few of the visitors ever 
studied the excavating forces by means of which the cave was hol- 
lowed out of the solid limestone, and fewer still, if any, would think 
that they were treading on a primeval burial- place. 

Doubtless the excay ation must be mainly due to aqueous agency, 
but a reference to Sir Charles Lyell’s ‘ Principles of Geology,’ Pro- 
fessor Phillips’s ‘ Treatise on Geology,’ and Richardson’s ‘Geology,’ 
shows that our leading writers on this subject consider that the jirst — 


ELLIOTT— HUMAN REMAINS NFAR STANHOPE. 39 


eause of a cavern must have been a fracture in the limestone rock, 
consequent on the upheaval of the strata, and that water then finding 
access to the crack, would wear it out to its present dimensions. 
Fractures in this case would most probably take place when the 
“Red Vein” was formed, which is only between two hundred and 
three hundred yards distant 


> re 2225 a) , aa 
2 Ue ae eee from the cave, and crosses 


faa Se cape, the ravine nearly at right- 
i, angles. This vein, which con- 
tains lead-ore, iron - stone, 
etc., is a wide one, requiring 
a wide fissure, and the force 
necessary to produce such a 
fissure would be sufficient to 
cause rents and small dislo- 
cations in the rocks at con- 
North. Beantape Barn: siderable distances. Besides 
Fig. 1.—Ground plan of cavern district. this there are two other veins 
Pa a eh Bone, Domest: ¢ Red Yel crossing the ravine ab lesser 
brushwood before the quarry was worked, on hill-side ; distances from the cave, and 
ge er po As) degrees. these would still further in- 
crease the probability of an original fissure. 

The cave must be very old if we suppose it to have been formed 
by the water running down tue ravine when on a level with its 
mouth or opening, seeing that 
the watercourse is now worn 
down ten or twelve feet below 
the cave’s bottom. Again, if 
we suppose it to have been ex- 
cavated by the attrition of the 
wayes of the sea during some re- 
mote period, when the waters of 
the ocean stood on a level with 
the cave, it must still have a very 

Fig. 2.—Transverse section of cave. ancient origin, for the cave is 
: i uerel of the Burn. 4 Level of cave (from a to situated upwards of thirty miles 

eet). c Osseous remains in the cave, (from 

btoc 14 yards). d cave without remains, (from from the sea, and upwards of 
base of d to ground-linef' 7 ft). e Limestone. — eight hundred feet above its pre- 
sent level. This locality must have been submerged during the glacial 
period, as we have evidence of by the deposits of boulder clay ; and if 
the sea on receding should have remained on a level with the limestone 
for a great length of time, the result would have been the wearing 
down of the rock, or the hollowing out of crevices and caves in the 
exposed strata. 

Jn a certain place of the cave-flooring, the workmen recently came 
upon a large sheet of stalagmite of varying thickness, but averaging 
about four inches. This calcareous incrustation has been formed by 
the ceaseless dropping of water holding lime in solution, from the 
roof of the cave. On removing this crust and a small portion of fine 


¢ ee ys SZ Wie oA 
py 


EY) oy 

Sy GF UNE 
ee IP Yow, 

ps é or = 


e 
SO 


36 THE GEOLOGIST. 


sand and silt, the workmen exhumed a human skull and a quan- 
tity of bones, some undoubtedly human, and others belonging to the 
lower animals. The human skull, according to its phrenological de- 
velopment, seems to indicate a low intellectuel capacity, the forehead 
being low, and the circumference under the average standard. There 
is also a fragment of a skull which 
seems to have belonged to a toler- 
ably large animal, as it measures 
three and a quarter inches from the 
medial line to the outside beside 
6 the ear, giving a breadth of six and 
a half inches for the whole skull; 
then if the integuments, hair, ete. 
be added, we should faa a physio- 
enomy little short of nine inches 
wide, and this creature may have 
been that of one of the principal 
tenants of the cave, and which pro- 
bably devoured the cthers. Inter- 
mixed with the remains are very 

a Angular piece of Limestone, Sand, etc. small pieces of bone, ae partially 
pire sere ce Osseous remains, Sand, Silt, ete, cemented together by calcareous 

d Stalagmite. ¢ Open cave. f Limestone. matter, and occurring in patches et 
different places ; these have the appearance of coprolites. The bones 
are nearly all fragmentary, and much broken; the fractures being of 
an ancient date, thereby showing that the remains had been subject 
to violence and fracture before they were imbedded in their calca- 
reous tomb. 

How long these remains have lain in the cave P- by what means they 
have been carried and entombed there ? whether the animal-remains 
belong to existing or to extinct species P and how the fractured bones 
are to be accounted for? are all very interesting paleontological 
problems. 

The cave has in all probability been occasionally inhabited by 
wolves, foxes, ete., which would sally forth, seize their prey, and re- 
turn to devour it, leaving the bones to be covered over by the stalag- 
mite as we find them ; the coprolites before mentioned seem to point 
to this conclusion. There seems to be not so much mystery about 
the animal bones being found there; but the case is quite different 
as regards the human. There is always something strange and start- 
ling in such occurrences, when human remains are found otherwise 
than reposing in the silent and hallowed precincts of a regular bury- 
ing-place. 

During the interment of these relics of some of the perhaps earliest 
members of our race, the rippling of running water on the cavern 
floor, the monotonous drippings from the roof, the growling perhaps 
of wolves, or the barking of foxes, and the bellowi ing of the wind 
through the gloomy chambers of the cavern, would ‘form the only 
requiem. 


Co OWW FP 


[6 or 7 feet wide. ] 
Fig. 3.—Section of cave. 


i 
| 
i 
| 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 37 


Tt ought, in conclusion, to be observed, that the remains are de- 
posited in a certain wing or chamber of the cave, about two feet above 
the floor where the water runs, so that they would he dry, with the 
exception of the calcareous droppings from the roof, or in the case of 
the cavern water being swollen above the capacity of the lower 
channel to contain it. 

Although a considerable portion of the cave has been destroyed by 
the quarrying operations, which are still going on, there remains 
yet a much larger extent undisturbed, so that more remains will most 


likely be discovered. 


“est Croft, Stanhope, by Darlington. 
Dec. 17th, 1861. 


[These bones, with specimens of the stalagmite, etc., have been transmitted to us and 
will receive careful study and consideration. We shall shortly give a concise and ac- 
curate account of them.—Ep. Grot., 22 Dec. 1861.] 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


GroLocicaL Society or Lonpon.— December 4.—Sir R. I. Murchison, 
V.P.G.S., in the chair. The following communication was read :—‘‘ On 
the Bracklesham Beds of the Isle of Wight Basin.” By the Rev. O. 
Fisher, M.A., F.G.S. After noticing the researches of Prestwich and 
Dixon, the author proceeded to state that most of the “ Bracklesham 
beds” are displayed at low water at Bracklesham Bay; but other and 
higher beds belonging to the same series are to be observed in the New 
Forest, at Stubbington, and in the Isle of Wight. By means of the 
fossils, for the most part, Mr. Fisher divides the series into four groups :— 
1. The uppermost abounds in Gusteropoda, and has several fossil-beds. 
One of these, in the eastern part of its range, is full of Nwmmulina 
variolaria (No. 16 of Mr. Prestwich’s Section of Whitecliff Bay, Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. uu. pl. 9); the NM. variolaria bed of Selsea and 
of Stubbington; and the Shepherd’s Gutter bed at Bramshaw, New 
Forest. The beds above the last-named are—l1st, a portion of No. 19 
of the Whitecliff Bay section and the coral-bed of Stokes Bay and 
Hunting Bridge (New Forest); and 2nd, the shell-bed at Hunting 
Bridge, and pebble-bed, with shell-casts, at Highcliff. The lowest bed of 
this groupis the ‘‘Cyprea-bed”’ of Selsea, the ‘‘Cardita-bed” of Stubbington, 
and the Brook bed in the New Forest. 2. This group is more sandy 
than the last; it has two fossil-beds, one of which contains Cerithium 
giganteum (at Hillhead, Stubbington; and half a mile west of Thorney 
station, Bracklesham Bay). 3. This is a sandy group, and is remarkable 
for the profusion of Nwimmulina levigata in its principal fossil-bearing 
beds. 4. This embraces the lowest fossiliferous sands of Bracklesham 
Bay. Its distinctive shells are Cardita acuticosta and Cyprea tuberculosa. 

Some species of mollusks pass upwards from the Bracklesham into the 
Barton series ; yet the Fauna of the Bracklesham beds has a sufficiently 
distinct facies; and the following species range through this series, 
and are confined to it—Cardita planicosta, Sanguinolaria Hollowaysit, 
Solen obliquus, Cytherea suberycinoides, Voluta Cithara, and Turritella 
suleifera. Pecten corneus is also characteristic, but is met with higher up. 


38 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The Bracklesham beds seen at Whitecliff Bay were first treated of, and 
Mr. Prestwich’s section referred to in detail. No. 6 (a pebble-bed) of this 
published section is regarded by Mr. Fisher as the base of the Brackle- 
sham series; the upper limit being somewhere in No. 19. Descriptions 
followed of the beds seen at Bracklesham Bay ; the eastern side of Selsea; 
at the Mixen Rocks; at weil-sinkings near Bury Cross; at Stubbington 
(including the Cerithium-bed at Hillhead, discovered by the author in 
1856) ; Netley, Bramshaw, Brook, and Hunting Bridge (where H. Keeping 
has lately found a fossil-bed high in the series), in the New Forest. 
Indications of the western range of the marine shells of “ Bracklesham” 
aze were quoted as occurring at Lychett, near Poole, and as very rare 
(one Ostrea) near Corfe. 

Bracklesham beds, containing marine forms, seen at Alum Bay, Isle of 
Wight, and at Highcliff, near Christchurch, were then described in full. 
The Bracklesham series is regarded by Mr. Fisher as commencing in both 
these sections a few feet beneath a dark-green clay (part of No. 29 of 
Mr. Prestwich’s section of Alum Bay) containing a peculiar variety of 
Nummulina planulata and many shells of the Barton Fauna. 

Remarks were also made on the estuarine condition of the lower 
Bracklesham beds in their western area; on the probable sources of their 
materials; on the successive deepenings of the old sea-bottom, and the 
formation of the pebble-beds; and lastly, on the fitness of the Brackle- 
sham and Barton series as a field for research in the history of molluscan 
species. 

The paper was illustrated by a series of specimens from the author’s 
collection. 

Specimens of gold in quartz-veins, of gold-dust, and of gold-ingots, 
from Nova Scotia, sent by Mr. Secretary Howe, were exhibited by Pro- 
fessor Tennant, F.G.S. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Northampton Sands. 


Dear Sir,—The November number of your valuable journal contains 
a paper by Mr. J. H. Macalister, on ‘‘ The Fossils of North Bucks and 
the adjacent Counties,’’ in which, I believe, reference is made to myself in 
the following passage, page 481:—‘“‘ The identity of the Northampton 
Sands (formerly classed with the has) with the Stonefield Slate of Oxford- 
shire and Gloucestershire, and constituting the lower zone of the Great 
Oolite;” and in a note it is added, “so classed by Dr. Wright, being 
separated by him from the inferior oolite, which they formerly were sup- 
posed to represent.” 

To this statement I have simply to say, that Mr. Macalister is altogether 
incorrect, as I have nowhere classed the Northampton Sands with the 
lias, nor made any reference to them. If that gentleman will refer to 
my memoir on “ The Paleontological and Stratigraphical Relation of the 
so-called Sands of the Inferior Oolite” (Quart. Journal of the Geol. Soe. 
vol. xii. p. 292), for 1856, he will find a full statement of the case, as 
regards the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset, but no reference 
whatever to Northampton; and in the preface to my ‘ Monograph on. 
the Oolitic Echinodermata,’ p. ix., he will find it stated that ‘in every 


\ 


We 


\ \\j "i 
\ A i 
\ 


—— SSS : 
‘aur 


ST i 


SECTION OF THE CHALK CLIFFS UNDER DOVER 


S. J. Mackie, F.G.S., del. 


CASTLE 


KENT. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 39 


instance, with the exception of the Northamptonshire beds, which have 
been carefully noted by my friend, the Rev. A. N. Griesbach, I have 
visited the localities given in this work,” but in no part of that mono- 
graph has my friend referred the Northampton Sands to the has. Mr. 
Macatister has been therefore altogether misinformed on this subject. 
I submit that it ought to be a rule with gentlemen furnishing papers to 
the valuable pages of the ‘ Geologist,’ in every case to refer to the original 
articles from which they quote. Yours most truly, 
THomas WRIGHT. 
Cheltenham, November, 1861. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


SUBDIVISIONS OF THE CHALK Formation.—The generally accepted 
subdivisions of the chalk are,—1, Upper White Chalk with bands of Flint 
nodules; 2, Middle or Lower White Chalk; 3, Grey Chalk or Chalk 
Marl. 

These have been in undisputed use for very many years, not because they 
do not require any modification to render the accordance more definite and 
more rigidly corresponding to the accumulation of information which has 
been going on since their introduction, but chiefly because chalk,—at least 
English chalk,—is white or of a pale grey, which when the beds are in a 
dry state is so nearly white, that ordinary eyes do not see the difference, 
and ordinary collectors do not care about it so long as they can get hold of 
a fine fossil. 

Still, however, it is very necessary, and high time that some one should 
take in hand to define accurately the lines of division, especially that be- 
tween the upper and lower white chalks. 

I doubt very much that the cessation of the bands of flints denotes the 
demarcation between the upper and lower white chalk (middle chalk of 
some authors): they should be properly, and must be ultimately, separated 
by a characteristic difference in the distinguishing organic remains. 

With the lowermost bands of flints (Plate IT. a) very numerous beds of 
veniriculites and sponges set in, and are continued far below the termina- 
tion of the layers of flints, down to a very thick bed of pure white’chalk 
(4), that rests upon a very marked and peculiar stratum about two feet 
thick (c), which, from the weathering out of its upper and under surfaces, 
forms a marked line as far as the eye can see the distinctions of bedding 
all along the coast. 

This bed, in my own note-books and in conversation, I have familiarly 
termed the ‘‘ two-foot stratum.” 

Below this we have again a thick bed of white chalk, free from flints. At 
least, such is the order in the section to which these remarks more particu- 
larly refer, namely, that presented by the East or Castle Cliff at Dover, 
of which we give a view in Plate II. 

This “two-foot stratum ” is persistent throughout Kent, and I have met 
withit both in Surrey and Sussex, and it will therefore probably form one 
of the best and most unmistakable guides in inland quarries to those 
particular beds of white chalk to which we wish to draw attention, for the 
purpose of getting all the information we can as to their geographical area, 
order of succession, and organic contents in other chalk districts, so that 
the true horizon of division, as formed by distinctiveness of organic remains, 
may be properly made out. 


40 THE GEOLOGIST. 


We shall be obliged by communications, and stratigraphical lists of 
fossils from our readers and correspondents, to assist us in our labours in 
determining this interesting point of Whether the ordinary division into 
“white chalk with flints,” and ‘‘ white chalk without flints,” is not merely 
a mineralogical division, and not a proper geological subdivision cha- 
racterized by distinctive organic remains, and marking out a positive zone 
in the succession of geological events and of life-forms ; or Whether a dis- 
tinguishing alteration in the organic remains of the white chalk does not 
happen so near the horizon of cessation of flint layers, that by including or 
excluding some few beds of chalk, those valuable and characteristic petrolo- 
gical features (of chalk with, or without flints) may not be made more pre- 
cisely valuable and definite than at present. S. J. Macxig. 


Lower Sr1iurtan Fossits at Buitry.—The neighbourhood of Builth 
affords excellent specimens of many of the Lower Silurian fossils, espe- 
cially trilobites. It may be useful to inform amateur and professed geolo- 
gists that the little town of Builth contains a good practical geologist in 
the person of Mr. John Jones, gardener at Pencarrig House, who, though 
in humble circumstances, possesses a capital knowledge of the fossils of 
the district, and the localities where they may at once be found. He is 
willing at all times, so far as his duties permit, to become the pioneer of geo- 
logical visitors at Builth, and will, for a suitable consideration, forward spe- 
cimens to correspondents. Several amateurs of high standing, as well as 
professors, have availed themselves of his knowledge to the enriching of 
their collections. Within the last twelve months I have received from 
him some excellent specimens of Trilobites (Ogygia Buchii, Ampyx 
nudus, Trinucleus concentricus, etc.), also specimens of Didymograpsus, 
Graptolithus, Rastrites, etc. I make this statement that others wishing 
to have their collections of Lower Silurian remains added to, may know 
whither to look for aid.—A_ Lmom1nsTER SUBSCRIBER. 


Mammatian Remains.—In the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ for1715, 
vol. xxix., two teeth of Elephas, probably H. antiquus, are recorded to 
have been found in the north of Ireland, at Maghery, eight miles from 
Bulturbet, in digging the foundation of a mill near the side of a small 
brook that parts the counties of Cavan and Monaghan. They were about 
4 feet underground, and about 80 yards from the brook. The bed on 
which they lay had been laid with ferns, and with that sort of rushes here 
ealled “sprits,” with which brushes and nut-shells were intermixed. 
Under this was a stiff blue clay, on which teeth and bones were found. 
Above this was, first, a mixture of yellow clay; under that a fine white 
sandy clay, which was next to the bed. The bed was, for the most part, 
a foot thick, cutting like turf; and in every layer the seed of the rush was 
as fresh as if new pulled. 

In the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ for 1754, vol. xlvii., there is a 
record of several bones of an elephant found at Leysdown, in the island 
of Sheppey, by Mr. Jacob, surgeon, of Faversham. Three or four years 
before, Mr. Jacob had sent the acetabulum of an elephant, which was dis- 
covered sticking in the clay which was partly washed away from the cliff, 
about a mile eastward of the cliffs of Minster. This, with other parts— 
vertebrae, a thigh-bone 4 feet long, too rotten to be taken up entire—all 
lay below high-water mark ; and as the place soon after became his property 
by purchase, he then went, attended by some workmen, in search of more 
relics, and found a tusk 8 feet long and 12 inches in circumference in the 
middle, besides other bones within 20 feet of those first recorded. 


| 


PLATS Ill. 


3. J. Mackie del. 


Fig. 1. 


—Z 
Ay 


ANY &- 
7 Fo), 


—~ 


Sri ae ——— 


CYPHOSOMA KCNIGT. 


[From the Upper Chall 
PI 


oa 


of Gravesend, Kent.] 


In the National Collection, British Museum. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


FEBRUARY 1862. 


NOTE ON KONIG’S SEA-URCHIN. (Cyphosoma Kenigi, 
Mantell.) 


By S. P. Woopwarp, F.G.S. 


One of the commonest fossils of the chalk in the London district 
is the beautiful Sea-Urchin, of which we here give two figures, from 
examples in the national collection. It was named by Dr. Mantell, in 
honour of Mr. Charles Konig, the distinguished German savant, who 
in his youth was Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, and became after- 
wards the Keeper of the Natural History Collections in the British 
Museum. By the country people in Wiltshire it is called the 
“Shepherd’s Crown.” 

The Konig’s Sea-Urchin belongs to a subdivision of the old Lin- 
nean genus Cidaris, to which the name of Cyphosoma was given by 


_ Agassiz (from kudos, curvus; cdpa, corpus). The five ambulacral 


bands are nearly as broad as the inter-ambulacral, and are ornamented 
with a double series of tubercles equal in size to the rest. These 
tubercles are placed on crenulated bosses, but are not perforated as 
in most of the Cidaride. 

The upper and under sides of this fossil Urchin are so different that 
drawings of them might be taken to represent two distinct species. 
The under side exhibits ten pairs of rows of tubercles, largest at the 
margin, and diminishing gradually to the central orifice. On the 
upper surface the tubercles are much smaller, and there are two ad- 
ditional rows on the inter-ambulacral bands, external to those which 
are continued downwards over the base. This character was pointed 

MOl:,: V. G 


4.2, THE GEOLOGIST. 


out by Dr. Mantell in his original description of the species, and 
serves to distinguish it from another form, nearly equally common in 
the chalk, which is figured and described by Goldfuss as C. granulosus, 
but is generally regarded as a (perhaps sexual ?) variety, having a more 
tumid shell, and with the additional rows of tubercles on the upper 
surface rudimentary or obsolete. 

The pairs of ambulacral pores in Cyphosoma Kenigi, form ten wind- 
ing lines from the mouth-opening (peristome) to the apical orifice 
(periproct). They are somewhat crowded at the mouth, but extend 
in single file to a little above the circumference, and then fall into 
double series on the upper part of the shell. The specimen repre- 
sented by fig. 1 exhibits a portion of the dental apparatus, lying in 
the peristome, and consisting of one of the five pairs of jaws which are 
similar in all the Hehinide, and form the ‘ lantern’ of Aristotle. 

Young and half-grown specimens of Cyphosoma Kenigi are com- 
paratively rare. They may be recognized by the flatness of the under 
surface, which distinguishes them at all ages, while in the little C. 
corollare (Parkinson) the base is rendered concave by the curling in- 
wards of the margin of the peristome. In the other common little 
species, C. spatuliferwm (Forbes), the ambulacral pores are ranged in 
single file throughout their course. 

The spines of Cyphosoma Keenigi are awl-shaped and rather short 
and stout, with spatulate ends. In the second example figured, a 
multitude of spines of all sizes were preserved in connexion with the 
shell, and have been cleared from the matrix with great skill and in- 
genuity by Mrs. W. H. Allen. 

There is another specimen in the British Museum with the spines 
remaining i situ, which was obtained more than a century ago, and 
formed one of the ornaments of Sir Hans Sloane’s collection. 

Although common in the chalk-pits of the Thames Valley, and in 
those near Brighton and Lewes, the Cyphosoma Kenigi appears to be 
unknown to the collectors of fossils from the uppermost division of 
the chalk at Norwich, or in the corresponding bed at Ciply in Bel- 
gium, and Meudon near Paris. It is said to be found at Montolieu, 
in the department of Drome, at Dusseldorf, and in the island of Rugen 
in the Baltie. 


a —— 


a 


43 


SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE TORBANE 
MINERAL FIELD. 


By AnpRew Tayrtor, F.R.PS., F.B.S.E. 


The various corps of an army drawn up in line of battle are dis- 
tinguished not only by their various uniforms, but also by the dis- 
tinct position assigned them in the field. This greatly helps the 
general to the immediate disposition of sharpshooters, infantry, or 
artillery, as the fate of battle may require. Most of the minerals 
which are the basis of our commercial and mining greatness are 
obtained from the Carboniferous system. The industrialist obtains 
them from various parts of this formation. When a new substance 
has presented itself, having characters very different from the ordi- 
nary rank and file of coals, clay-bands, or fire-clays, its stratigraphi- 
eal position will help us to determine if it is entitled to a distinct 
character. If its place be distinct from those of the ordinary coals, 
if likewise there are indications of a different physical mode of for- 
mation, then its claim to be a new mineral will be greatly strength- 
ened. 

The lower carboniferous rocks of Scotland consist of shales-and 
sandstones more than a thousand feet thick, termed by Mr. Maclaren 
the calciferous sandstone series. A freshwater limestone, equivalent 
to that worked at Burdie House, near Edinburgh, is the predominant 
member of this group. This limestone runs in an elliptical area 
round that city for nearly twenty-four miles, extending through Fite, 
Midlothian, and Linlithgowshires. Part of this series extends to the 
south-east of the town of Bathgate, round which is the Torbane Hill 
mineral basin. A geological section in the Bathgate Hills, taken from 
Dechmont-law to Balbardie House, exhibits a limestone containing 
freshwater fossils, and equivalent to the one worked at Burdie House, 
gradually merged into another limestone containing marine fossils, 
which is usually recognized as the lowest bed of the carboniferous 
series. 

The axis of the hills occurs in a wooded prominence overlooking 
the Caputhall Bogs, and near the “ Clinking Stane.” At this point 
the limestones may be traced within a few hundred yards of each 
other, dipping north-north-west and south-south-east. The Kirkton 
limestone, a peculiar bed, described by Dr. Hibbert, containing both 
marine and fluviatile remains, intervenes. Eastward from the pro- 
minence just indicated, both the axis of the hills, and the connexion 
of the limestones, may be traced in the burn running through Ban- 
gour Farm, at Binny, and thence at various points to the shore of 
the Forth at Hopetoun. 

From the section described, the succession of the strata on either 
side of the axis, comprising the country eastward to Edinburgh on 
the one hand, and westward to Shotts on the other, is as follows :— 


44, THE GEOLOGIST. 


Axis. 
W.NN. ‘ S.S. E. 
\ 
i] 
3. Upper Lanarkshire coal measures :— 3. Sandstones, shale, and a bed of coal. 
Wholly fluviatile organic characters. 
2. Beds of marine and fluvio-marine lime- | 2. Freshwater limestone. 
stone intercalated with shale, coal, 
ironstone, and stratified trap. 
1. Shales, sandstones. 1. Shale, sandstone, tufa. 


On the Bathgate Hills the marine limestone is sixty feet thick, 
and the fluviatile limestone about twenty feet thick. But towards 
the south-west, on the borders of Edinburgh and Lanarkshires, the 
marine limestone thins into beds of from three to six feet thick, 
whilst the freshwater bed is above fifty feet thick. 

The Torbane Hill bed lies in number two of the left-hand series 
of strata. Along with two or three local coal-seams, it occupies a 
small mineral basin some two or three miles in area, lying immedi- 
ately above the mountain-limestone, but stratigraphically distinct 
from the upper Lanarkshire coal-measures. The petrological struc- 
ture of the surrounding strata is very unique; let us try to evolve 
their history. 

The physical changes closing the life-era of the Scott?sh old red 
sandstone system are difficult to determine. From various geolo- 
gical reasons, the chief of which are the wave-ripples on the sand- 
stones, and the physical structure of the surrounding mountain-chains, 
it has been deduced that central Scotland was a strait or frith bounded 
as now by the prominent peaks of the northern and southern High- 
lands. Islets, covered by a strange vegetation, dotted this watery cx- 
panse; from the eastward strong currents brought down the spoils of 
a now lost land, depositing the shales and sandstones so predominant 
round the Scottish metropolis. In this quarter, too, an intense vol- 
canic activity prevailed. 

The trappean bosses, which form so prominent a feature in the 
landscape round Edinburgh, were mostly erupted at this time. So, 
at least, the labours of Mr. Geikie and others go to prove. 

From St. Abb’s Head to Bathgate a chain of volcanos sent up their 
lurid contents into the Carboniferous sky. Nowhere was this activity 
more intense thin on the Bathgate hills. The freshwater series to 
the eastwards of our section are everywhere intercalated with trap ; 
some of it developed as aerial ash-beds, the rest as submarine green- 
stones. ‘The prominences round Winchburgh, Binny, and Linlithgow, 
which the railway-traveller may remember so boldly characterize the 
scenery, are the memorials of these eruptions. The spot pointed out 
as the axis of the hills was undoubtedly the vent of a very active vol- 
cano. Immediately above Bathgate four or five great beds of basaltic 
greenstone and ash lie so intercalated with the aqueous strata as to 


TAYLOR—TORBANE MINERAL FIELD. AS 


be only explicable on the hypothesis that they were emptied at the 
same time that the other strata were deposited. 

The chemical changes effected by these igneous strata on the sur- 
rounding rocks are likewise very curious. In many places the lime- 
stone is changed into a crystalline marble. One bed at Kirkton 
affords undoubted evidence that it was deposited by a thermal spring. 
The great thickness the main bed of limestone in the hills attains, 
may be accounted for as much from its being a chemical deposit, as 
one of animal origin. The sandstones and shales, too, are often curi- 
ously baked, showing the violence of the igneous agencies. But we call 
special attention to the prevalence of bitumen in the district, some- 
times appearing solid in the crevices of the sandstones, as at Binny ; 
sometimes in round circular nodules in the trap or limestones ; and 
sometimes oozing out liquid from trappean reservoirs. 

The circular type of structure is very prevalent in the aqueous 
rocks of the district, as in the sandstone at King’s Cavel, and 
amongst the ironstones. It extends throughout the rock sys- 
tems. It is most manifest in the oolite or roe-stone of another for- 
mation. However we may explain it, it is clearly the result of agen- 
cies at work when the sandstones and shales were depositing, and 
not a subsequent chemical change. This admitted, it follows that 
most of the bitumen of the district is contemporaneous with the 
igneous rocks, and that the highly bituminous sandstones and shales 
were saturated at the period of their deposition. The clearest proof 
of this is the structure of the celebrated Binny sandstone. How 
else can we explain the black bituminous patches appearing on its 
surface P The physical agency at work may have been the conjunction 
of two rapid currents. But it is much easier to suppose the bitumen 
ejected from some neighbouring volcano floated in the waters of the 
lagoon or river in which the sandstone was forming, and then me- 
chanically mingled with it ; than that the sandstone was subsequently 
saturated from beneath. 

Facts zonnected with the occurrence and formation of bitumen at 
the present day bear out this hypothesis. Its connection with volcanic 
agency is well known. The celebrated pitch-lake of Trinidad stands 
in close proximity to a volcano, as also do some of the bituminous 
localities im Asia Minor. All the three varieties of this substance 
float on water. Maltha, or mineral pitch, floats on the surface of the 
Dead Sea. Petroleum floats on the Tigris and Euphrates, so much 
so, that the surface of the river is often set on fire. The boatmen.on 
the Tigris and Huphrates are paid in this substance. Doubtless at 
the bottom of these rivers there are many nascent beds of richly bitu- 
minous shales. 

Given then a series of submarine volcanos ejecting out sheets of 
liquid bitumen, and at the same time sand and mud rapidly deposited ; 
let these commingle, and we have the rationale of the formation of 
the Binny sandstone, and the bituminous shales of Queensferry and 
Broxburn. ‘These forces ceased after a time. A morass was slowly 
formed which now constitutes the Houston ceal-bed. This indicates 


46 THE GEOLOGIST. 


another condition under which bitumen was eliminated. In this case 
it is the result not of mechanical deposition, but of subsequent chemi- 
eal action from decaying organic substances. Again, the action of 
the currents was resumed, and fresh bituminous shales were formed. 

When the contemporaneous traps on the north-west side of our 
section were ejected, the same succession of physical changes con- 
tinued. Bitumen occurs in globules both in the contemporaneous 
traps and in the limestones. The limestones indicate three marked 
alterations in the level of the land. First, the Kirkton limestone, 
with its leafy lamine, and curiously baked hens of cherty porcelain, is 
interstratified ash, and over: -capping basalt indicate proximate vol- 
canic activity when forming. J luvio-marine fossils are found in it. 
The land then sank so far as to allow the building corals to com- 
mence their labours ; a reef was now formed which was added to by 
shells dashed in by the surf from the neighbouring sea, and the pre- 
cipitation of carbonate of lime from a sea surcharged from its prox- 
imity to a voleanic cone; thus the great belt of the limestone of the 
hills was formed. But immediately after the land was subject to as 
rapid an elevation ; as is manifest from the Stigmarias found in the 
upper bed of the limestone,—the lower beds abounding in deep-sea 
shells. Ash-beds also cover it. The hills now seem gradually to 
have risen above the waves, and a prevalence of freshwater strata 
filled the small Torbane Hill basin. But all this time the voleano did 
not stop its activity, as is evidenced by the thick ridges of inter- 
bedded basalt which may be traced terracing the country upwards 
from Bathgate. It is easy to suppose that sheets of bitumen, as at 
the prior period of the Binny sandstone, floated on the waters of this 
lagoon; that in one time in particular, a very large quantity was 
given out, and thus, aided mayhap by ejections from beneath, the Tor- 
bane Hill bed was formed. May not the round circular masses in the 
Torbane Hill mineral, which so puzzle microscopists, be the result of 
the action of currents, ,—only, however, on a smaller scale than those 
visible to the naked eye in the other rocks. of the district >? In sug- 
gesting this hypothesis we make allowance for the fact that at other 
tymes the basin was elevated so that morasses could accumulate, and 
thus the beds of coal be formed. The district thus exhibits evidence 
of both modes of the elimination of bitumen. 

In the upland country west of the Torbane Hill basin there is a sin- 


gular absence of trappean ridges. The district rises into a series of 


undulating hills formed solely of the upper members of the carboni- 
ferous system of Lanarkshire. The lower carboniferous volcano had 
ceased previous to their deposition ; and the Bathgate bills probably 
formed elevated land at the base of the great strait in which these 
strata were depositing. Slowly the land rose and fell, morass after 
morass accumulated to be compressed into future coal-beds after being 
covered over by sand and mud. Bitumen was thus formed through 
chemical agencies. Its source is manifest from the microscopic struc- 
ture of the coal, which is entirely of woody origin, not exhibiting 


traces of clay or sand from drift. The beds of this upper formation — 


0g RE Wg em ee. inane 


RUBIDGE— SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 47 


were deposited over a wide area, and, unlike the Torbane Hill basin, 
with the greatest uniformity. This upper coal-basin then strikingly 
contrasts with the unique character of the Torbane Hill basin; and 
greatly aids our argument that the mineral was formed under different 
physical conditions from those of the true coal-beds. 


NOTES ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF ROCKS IN 
SO UME ARICA: 


By Dr. R. N. Rusipes, of Port Elizabeth. 


It is near eleven years since that in travelling through Howison’s 
Poort,* one of the most picturesque of the many fine mountain passes 
through the quartzite ranges of the eastern province of the Cape 
Colony, my atteution was drawn to a geological fact to which obser- 
vation in other parts of the Colony has since led me to attach no 
little importance. In the construction of the main road from Port 
Elizabeth to Graham’s 'Town, many deep cuttings have been made in 
the solid quartzite rock. In many instances the rock seen in these 
works lost its crystalline character gradually, and assumed that of a 
hard blue sandstone, and at length nearly resembled the blue fossi- 
liferous shales and sandstones of the Kcca. 

These quartzite rocks have been referred to the age of the Carbo- 
niferous formation of Europe by Mr. Bain (Geol. Trans. vol. vil. 2nd 
series, pp. 54 and 188), and both he and Dr. Atherstone (‘ Kastern Pro- 
vince Magazine,’ vol.i. p. 588) describe them as conformable with the 
slaty rocks of the district. I have no doubt whatever that they generally 
are so. They pass gradually into each other, and, as I have described, 
the quartzite traced downward loses much of its siliceous character, 
and gradually assumes that of the slate and of the Ecca rock. This 
last is by Mr. Bain dissociated from the Carboniferous formation, and 
made the lowermost of the Lacustrine or Karoo series, but I have the 
following reasons for differing with him :— 

1. At the western entrance of Howison’s Poort are some beds of 
rock, intermediate in lithological character between the quartzite and 
the Hcca beds. These contain vegetable stems which have been re- 
cognized by many as identical with those of the Ecca. At Forester’s 
Farm, east of Graham’s Town, is a blue rock, just like that of the 
HKeeca, containing the same fossils, which passes gradually into the 
eneiss. The sandstone on the one side is in relation on the other 
with the claystone-porphyry of Bain, as is the rock at the Ecea. 
Near Salem, in the heart of the Carboniferous system of Bain, are 
similar rocks with like fossils, conformable with the quartzite. 

2. The strike of the inclined rocks, quartzites, slates, and Ecca 
rocks is throughout the province north 60° west nearly. If we draw 


Poort, a natural pass through a mountain range. 


48 THE GEOLOGIST. 


a line of eight miles through Graham’s Town and near Salem, at right- 
angles to this direction, it will pass through little but quartzite. If 
we draw a line of the same length through the Commadagga beyond 
the Zeurberg, it will pass through nothing but slates, Ecca rock, and 
claystone porphy ry 

3. On the road to Graaff Reinet is a place called Wolve Krool. 
It is a plain, bounded by quartzite hills. Its section is this :— 

Here the Ecea rock contains Fig. 1. 
its characteristic fossils, is eon- 
formable with the quartzite, and } 
is separated from the Dicyno- 
don rocks by a highish moun 
tain of quartzite and many males 
of slate, porphyry, etc. I could 
add many other reasons for this 
belief, but I think these will be 
sufficient. What is then the true relation of the quartzite to the 
Ecca rock and the slates? and how is it that at one part of a line of 
strike the rock will be all of a blue slaty fossiliferous character, and 
at another all crystalline quartzite, destitute, or nearly so, of fossils ? 
How is it that in deep sections, natural as well as artificial, such as 
are made by cutting roads or by deep gullies, the slaty rocks are found 
below gradually passing upwards into quartzite? Of this I could 
give scores of instances, but I will select only one natural one. The 
range of quartzite on the left-hand of the section is crossed by a bye- 
road. This road passes for a mile or more over well-marked Ecca 
rock, with the high quartzite hills on either hand. The quartzite on 
the right-hand dies out, and the road to Graaff Reinet passes over 
Ecca rock in the corresponding part of the section. 

I found what I believe to be the key to the explanation of these 
facts in Namaqualand. In passing through Ezel’s Poort, between 
Springbok Vontein and Spectakel, | was shown a section which had 
been noted by Dr. Atherstone as remarkable. The gneiss hills were 
covered by horizontal layers of quartzose sandstone, and these were 
continuous on the western side of the hill with like quartzose sand- 
stone dipping at a high angle westward, conformably with the gneiss. 
Tt was clear that this change of dip was not due to any upheaval, for 
the horizontal sandstones were found undisturbed a few yards distant. 
I soon learnt to regard this juxtaposition of horizontal and inclined 
beds, this continuity of quartzite conformable and unconformable with 
its subjacent rock, as a normal state of things in Namaqualand. When 
I saw high mountains with like structure, I was at first a little stag- 
gered, but soon felt convinced that even on this scale the phenomenon 
was due to the assimilation to each other by a process, common to 
both, of rocks of widely different ages. 

In the Western Province I made, in a rapid journey from Cape 
Town to Ceres, a selection from the clay-slate to the Upper Silurian 
of Bain. I had reason, as far as I was able, to confirm the truth of . 
Mr. Bain’s section, while differing from him in the inference I drew 


. MN peat ae WYP, 


vs 


Quartzite. 
Porphyry. 


Quartzite. 
Porphyry. 
Heea rock. 
Slate. 


Slate, 


RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. . 49 


from it. I believe his wide dislocation of the Ceres beds from the clay- 
slate to be an error into which he has been led by a state of things 
like that of Ezel’s Poort. I have never been able to get direct proof 
that this is the case here, although I have elsewhere, as shall pre- 
sently appear. 

On my return to the Eastern Province, I thought I saw evidence 
of the siliceous change of rocks on a much oreater scale than I had 
observed them in Namaqualand. I wrote a Paper on the subject, 
and published it in the local magazine I have quoted above (‘ Hastern 
Province Magazine,’ vol. ii. p. 187). I hoped it would have led my 
friends here, from whose sections mine differed considerabl y, to re- 
examine their data. A little after, I sent home a Paper which was 
read at the Geological Society of London (see an abstract of it in the 
‘Geological Society’s Journal,’ vol. xv. p. 195), in which I eo 
these views, and predicted that the clay-slate of the west would here- 
after be found identical with the Upper Silurian of Bain, and the Car- 
boniferous rocks of the east identical with both, the quartzite being 
changed rock, sometimes slate itself, sometimes a newer unconfor- 
mable rock, Of this identity I was ‘enabled to send home strong 
presumptive proof in the shape of fossils identical with the Upper 
Silurian of Bain, from the clay-slate on the western shores of Francis 
Bay. More recently L have obtained the same fossils (pronounced 
Devonian at home) from various points between the Kromme and 
Kabeljouw rivers, St. Francis Bay, in the clay-slate, and from Chatty, 
near Port Elizabeth ; from Naroo, near Uitenhage ; from Blauw 
Krants, on the Bezuidenhouts river, on the road to Graaff Reinet ; 
and from the northern base of the Coxcomb in the Winterhoek 
range in the Carboniferous. Still, it might be objected that there 
may really be a difference between the clay-slate and the Devonian, 
though Mr. Bain may have mistaken the line of division. If refer- 
ence be made to the Admiralty chart of St. Francis Bay, it will be 
seen that the low shores of the bay are crossed by a range of moun- 
tains of considerable elevation. These mountains, which are quartz- 
ite, cross the strike at a considerable angle, nearly, in fact, for some 
distance at a right angle; so that on the beach and the low hills you 
may cross near ten miles of slate, perhaps five miles of strike, while 
six or eight miles inland, on the heights, the corresponding part of 
the section is all quartzite. The quartzite must, consequently, cross 
unconformably the slates, and therefore be newer than they. The 
reasons why they cannot be older, I need not give here, as I have given 
many of them above. These same quartzite hills are continuous with 
others of the same lithological character, which are decidedly confor- 
mable with the Devonian rocks, though they too cross the strike at an 
angle of 30°. I have not had opportunities for such an examination 
of the country between this and Cape Town, as to enable me to say 
positively that there are no beds older than the Devonian; but I 
think I have shown satisfactorily that the evidence on which the clay- 
slate is referred to a much higher antiquity is fallacious. I can safely 
assert that the Devonian beds of this country are crossed by lofty 

VOL. V. H 


50 THE GEOLOGIST. 


ranges of quartzite, often unconformable with them, which quartzite 
is continuous with like quartzite conformable with the Devonian beds. 
Whence I infer that the rocks of a tract of country may be so altered 
by molecular changes common to all (probably in the instance of our 
rocks the infiltration of silica), that beds of widely different ages may pre- 
sent the same lithological character, and that when horizontal quartzose 
(or calcareous* or felspathic ?) rocks are continuous with inclined 
rocks of the same kind 7 ts not always safe to infer that beds resting 
conformably on the latter are much newer formation than those on which 
the sandstones rest unconformably, that the beds a, 6, are very far older 
than ¢, d, for instance. 


oe 2. 
GN (1 7 iin m\ \ WUE Mj 


a b 


It is my conviction then (though I admit that my evidence is not 
quite conclusive) that the inclined slaty rocks of this Colony, west 
as well as east, all belong one formation, which geologists at home 
have, on the evidence of fossils, pronounced to be Devonian; and that 
the quartzite is a rock which has undergone a superficial change, and 
may therefore be called metamorphic. This siliceous metamorphosis 
is associated with other changes. The clay-slaty beds are often con- 
verted into ochry, micaceous, and chloritic schists. 

There is not in the Eastern Province much evidence of ordinary 
metamorphic action, except in the claystone-porphyry of Bain, which 
I regard as a product of metamorphic action, as I shall more fully 
explain hereafter. At the Matland mines , about twenty miles west 
of Port Elizabeth, are slates like those which at Chatty contain 
Devonian fossils. Some of these have been converted into chloritie, 
hornblendic, and micaceous schists, without any evidence of the prox- 
_ imity of eruptive rocks. Im the planes of bedding of these schists 
are veins of quartz, and occasionally carbonate of lime, not very rich 
in copper-pyrites. I regard the hard blue crystalline limestone of 
the same locality, in which lead and zine ore occurs, as partially, at 
least, metamorphic. At George and other places intermediate be- 
tween Cape Town and here, granite occurs, but as I have had no 
opportunity of examining it, I shall trace the evidences of metamor- 
phic action from Cape Town northward. 

At Cape Town I found granite-veins varying from one to three 
feet to as many lines diameter running parallel with the strike of the 
clay-slate rocks without displacing them, showing, I think, that they 
had been changed zz situ. Other veins crossed “the strike. Again, 


* T think I saw calcareous beds of which all I have asserted of the quartzite might 
be predicated. 


RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 51 


isolated masses of slate preserved their dip unaltered in the midst of 
granite which appeared to have a dipinthe same direction. Passing 
north-westward towards Namaqualand, I saw the slate near Heer- 
lozement so little altered and so like some of the fossiliferous rocks of 
the Hastern Province that I much regretted that my engagements did 
not permit of a closer examination of it. At Olifant’s river the rocks, 
still with the same strike as in Cape Town, viz. nearly magnetic north 
(north 30° west), had assumed a micaceous and talcose character, and 
on the northern bank of the river were much impregnated with iron. 
Four or five miles beyond Kokonap I saw the slate for the last time 
till I met it at the Orange river, and here it abounded in a peculiar 
form of eyanite which I afterwards found in great abundance in the 
gneiss and mica-schist of De Kiet, near Hondeklip Bay. Some 
grassy country intervened between this spot and the next where 
rocks were visible. These were felspathic in great variety. I could 
not get a satisfactory observation of their dip for some days’ journey, 
perhaps owing to the little experience I had then of rocks of this 
class. There are few things I have more to regret im the wav of lost 
opportunities than the want of a careful examination in detail of the 
country within ten miles’ radius of the lowermost ford of the Olifant’s 
river. It would include a section from the clay-slate to the Upper 
Silurian of Bain which are found in the Cederberg as well as the 
passage of the former into the felspathic rocks of Namaqualand. 
Bain has no hesitation in affirming this change, and I have every 
reason to think that he is correct ; but believing as I do in the identity 
of his clay-slate and the Upper Silurian, I cannot but regret that I 
was unable to make a thorough examination of the country. I believe 
Bain’s separation of the clay-slate from the Upper Silurian (Devo- 
nian) are drawn here as elsewhere from the position of the quartzite 
crossing the slate and underlying the Devonian. Is not this evidence 
identical with that on which metamorphic formations are assigned to 
widely distant epochs in Europe P 

In addition to the want of time and of experience referred to, I 
have to regret the loss of a note-book in which my observations on 
the rocks in the earlier as well as later part of my journey in Nama- 
qualand were inserted. I cannot therefore tell from my own obser- 
vations how the strike of the rocks which was north 30° west at 
Olifant’s river, assumes a nearly east and west strike at Springbok 
Vontein. As we pass northwards it takes a more northerly direc- 
tion, and at Oograbis it is north 60° west, and at Annies, on the 
Orange river, it resumes its north 30° west strike with its slaty 
character. I have no hesitation in affirming the passage of the slate 
into felspathiec rock here. 

Assuming, then, the metamorphosis of paleozoic rocks into gneiss, 
mica-schist, etc., I will merely reiterate my firm belief that those of 
Namaqualand are the changed condition of the great mass of slaty 
beds which extend from the mouth of the Tish river in the east to 
Cape Town, and thence to Olifant’s river, and at various points con- 
tain fossils which have been referred to the Devonian epoch by 
geologists of Europe. I again admit that the evidence by which I 


52 THE GEOLOGIST. 


have attempted to establish this is somewhat defective, but I have 
shown clearly that that on which it is dented is valueless. 

I have already described the interpolation of masses of granite 
among the slate of Cape Town without displacement : this phenomenon 
obtains to a much greater extent in Namaqualand; great masses of 
granite, with little if any evidence of stratification, pass gradually into 
eneiss on either side, and, in fact, all round, without change of dip. 
These are called locally “ bosses,” and their scaling off is remarkable, 
giving them the rounded outline, whence their name. The same 
thing is seen in the change of hornblende-schist into greenstone or 
syenite, with large crystals of hornblende. Numerous instances of 
this occur; one of the most striking is between Klein Pella and 
Oomsdrift.* 

I have mentioned in a former Paper that the soni of the strata 
in which the copper-ore is deposited occur in gneiss, and when a sec- 
tion is seen on a hill-side no granite is visible, but when worked to 
any considerable depth, the rock loses its laminated character and be- 
comes a felspathic granite or greenstone. A remarkable section was 
observed near Pella: a stream had worked a deep channel in the 
rocks ; the edges of the ravine so formed were of well-marked gneiss, 
while the water ran cver a bed of granite without trace of lamina- 
tion, the gneiss preserving the same dip on either side of the ravine. 
Indeed, it appeared to me as if metamorphosis of the rock into felspa- 

thie granite was the normal state below, while the gneissic lamina- 
tion was a superficial indication of the old stratification-planes. 
While on this subject I will mention what appears to me to be a 
singular character of our paleéozoic rocks here. The specimens I 
have sent home will show that all the Devonian fossils here lose 
every trace of their carbonate of lime. They are preserved, often 
very perfectly, in oxide of iron, but in my experience they are seen 
only on the exposed edges of the rocks, be these oreatly inclined, as 
at Chatty and Hermansdorp, or only slightly so, as at Coxcomb and 
Jeffrey’s bay. At Chatty I have seen a mass hollowed out in all 
directions by the decay of the encrinites on the edges, while tracing 
the same layer deeper in, it lost all trace of fossils. Frequent repeti- 
tions of this seemed to me to establish it as a rule that the fossils in 
the rock were only exposed by decomposition. Still it may be merely 
accidental. J should be glad to learn whether it is so or not. 

I have stated that in thie metallic twists, or saddles, I never saw 
eranite in what I could consider the position of an intrusive rock. In 
one of the accessory twists which meet the metallic saddles at various 
angles, and which in section on a flat surface have the appearance of 
a feather, the shaft (@ 6) of the feather was , 
gs of micaceous schist, with a few rather Me 
arge crystals of felspar. I have frequently seen as— 
irregular-shaped Suellen of mica- schist follow- aa Cire 
ing neither strike, nor any law that I could per- 
ceive, among the gneiss. Granite occurred in Fig. 3. 
the same way in other spots. 

* Drift-ford (of the Orange river). 


RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 53 


It is well known that prehnite is a common mineral in some parts 
of this colony. It occurs in the dioritic or syenitic dykes of the 
Dicynodon strata, and is evidently a product of the re-arrangement of 
the minerals of these dykes during their decomposition. The prehn- 
ite is found in lamine between the decomposing masses of the dykes 
and on their faces as digitate concretions. Unlike M. Daubrée’s 
zeolites it has not required heat for its formation, but, like them, it 
is forming at this hour by aqueous action. I have almost as little 
doubt that dykes and other masses of granite are forming in the same 
way from the re-arrangements of the constituent minerals of the 
gneiss. I find it easier to feel the truth of this on the spot than to 
convey it to others; still I will endeavour to give some reason for 
my faith. One mass of gneiss, near Henkrees, in which a vein of 
granite, terminated by an expansion about a foot square, proceeded 
along the gneiss. It was quite evident that there was no intrusion, 
no connection with any mass below. Spindle-shaped masses of 
granite placed between beds of felspathic, micaceous, and other rocks, 
were numerous and could often be entirely removed by a hammer, 
showing they had no connexion with any subterranean mass. 
Spherical lumps of granite or syenite were frequently quite isolated 
in the schists of the mines. I have stated before that beds of quartz- 
ite appeared to be intercalated by a filtration from above; some of 
these could be traced down till they became mixed with mica and 
then with felspar, and not very much deeper assumed the character 
of the gneiss of the country. Other masses, which seemed to be in- 
termediate between these, toward the spindle-shaped granite lumps 
above, were composed principally of quartz, with a few grains of mica 
and felspar, and occasionally garnets : these were surrounded by mica- 
schist in bent-up strata ; yet the whole mass, perhaps twenty pounds 
or less in weight, could be removed. These circumstances seemed 
to me to prove clearly that if felspathic rocks of any kind are the 
products of metamorphic action, then are granite, syenite, etc., trace- 
able to a like origin ; that if, as I think, I have clear evidence, in the 
Maitland Mines and other places of this neighbourhood, paleozoic 
rocks are convertible into micaceous, chloritic, and felspathic schists, 
without evidence of eruptive agencies, then are the so-called igneous 
rocks equally so. I think it will scarcely be disputed by any who 
admit the re-arrangement of felspathic rocks I have contended for, 
that causes by which such re-arrangement was made, may have 
effected the original conversion of sedimentary into crystalline rocks. 
We have in this province a rock which has been pronounced decidedly 
igneous by the highest European authorities ; it is the claystone- 
porphyry of Bain. Yet its position among the other rocks is, in 
many respects, just that of the quartzite; and, like the latter rock, 
its individual beds and its minor masses are conformable with the 
stratified rocks, while in ranges many miles in length, it crosses the 
strike of the strata, generally at an angle of about 30°. This fact 
was first demonstrated to me by Mr. Pinchin, a gentleman who has 
made many interesting observations on the geology of this country. 


54 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The sections of the Zeurberg, of Van Zonder’s Plain (given above) 
on the Graff Reinet road, together with a somewhat imperfect re- 
collection of that of Graham’s Town, had led me to believe that the 
relation of the porphyry to the slate was constant. It is now evident 
that I was in error here. The fact of the masses of the porphyry 
crossing the slate without disturbing it seems to me greatly to 
strenethen my views as to its metamorphic origin by rendering the hy- 
pothesis of Messrs. Bain and Wylie untenable. The former gentleman 
supposed that the porphyry had been poured over the surface of the 
strata as liquid lava. Mr. Wylie referred its origin to volcanic ac- 
tion, producing ash, which was deposited at the bottom of the ocean, 
and formed this igneous-like rock with its contained granite pebbles 
and fragments of rock. The fact of the direction of its masses being 
ai: an angle of 80° with the strike seems to me to be incompatible with 
either of these hypotheses. The ranges of porphyry, like those of 
quartzite, die out and reappear. The normal position of the porphyry 
appears to be as in fig. 4, but I have seen it placed as in figs. 5 and 


Slate. Porphyry. Slate. Slate. Porphyry. Slate. Slate. Porphyry. Slate. 
Lee ae ee “fz HAL 
(i flees YIN gp LEELA IP 
SA fey /) | Saaee AY LE Y Wee ea V\\ UA 
ABSA 111 \\\ Bape, Zid pega \\\\\ 


oe ee Fig. 6. 

The character by which we all agree to recognize this rock is the 
presence of masses of quartz and granite of various sizes with occa- 
sional fragments of slate and other rocks. Sometimes these masses 
are as much as fifty pounds in weight, at others they are so minute 
as to be scarcely recognizable by the naked eye. In a recent journey 
to Paardenpoort I met with amass of this-porphyry which terminated 
in a vein about a foot thick, with very minute crystals. Now what 
is the character of the rock among which this porphyry is interposed 
or interstratified P It is such that no one acquainted with the two 
would pretend to diagnose them, save by the presence of the crystals 
above mentioned. Nor would the blowpipe, or even more careful 
analysis, so far as J am aware, enable him to do so. If then the base 
of the rocks differ so little, and there is evidence that no displacement 
has taken place in any known section (see Bain and. Wylie), is it not 
clear that this rock has originated in slow conversion? Yet I be- 
lieve whatever may be predicated of it may be equally so of granite ; 
for it contains granitic masses in great numbers, and often of large 
size : besides granite, veins occupy precisely the same position among 
rocks which I have given reasons for believing to be the same strata 
in the Western Province. 

But it will be seen above that I am not disposed to admit that the 
evident displacement of strata is at all times due to eruptive agency. 
I have given instances, on a very small seale, in which I feel sure it is 
not so. I hope ere long to be able to show that the infiltration of 
quartz from above has produced this effect, but my evidence on this" 


RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 55 


subject is still somewhat defective ; I will defer what I have to say on 
this subject till a future period. 

I have had but little time or opportunity for the microscopical 
studies which have done so much for the views on the nature and 
origin of granite which I am here advocating. I should hardly have 
ventured indeed to have given observations so crude as my own, but 
for a conviction that probably no country in the world offers greater 
facilities for studies of this kind than does this Colony, and more 
especially the district of Namaqualand, which is probably barer of 
vegetation and more intersected by gullies than any other country in 
the world not absolutely uninhabitable. 

I will give a brief réswmé of the observations wnich led me first to 
doubt and at length to abandon the igneous theory of granite, in 
which I was a firm believer ere I visited the Western Province of the 
Colony. 

1. The undoubted change which rocks have undergone into quartz- 
ite and its equally evident origin in superficial and igneous agency. 
Mr. Darwin admits this origin of the Table Mountain sandstone. 

2. The existence of beds of granite and other rocks of felspathic 
bases in association with sedimentary rocks in positions which it is 
impossible to believe they could have occupied by forcible intrusion 
from below. Many veins of the claystone-porphyry exceed a thousand 
yards in width, yet they do not in the slightest degree disturb the 
strata adjacent to them. At Kleinpoort I measured the slate eighteen 
inches from its junction with the porphyry. It dipped towards the 
latter at an angle of 35°, the porphyry itself having a dip in the 
same direction. 

8. The irregular masses of granite taking the place of gneiss and 
not connected with the granite below. 

4. The origin of prehnite and other zeolitic minerals from decom- 
position of igneous dykes of the Dicynodon-strata. Prehnite, as 
well as of quartz, is formed thus between the decomposing “ boul- 
ders”’ of igneous rocks. Veins of carbonate of lime are often formed 
in the same way. Nor can I hesitate to refer the felspathic veins 
and irregular masses in decomposing gneiss in Namaqualand to a 
like process of re-arrangement. I have there seen carbonate of lime 
in felspathic rocks; fluor-spar mixed with epidote and felspar ; phos- 
phate of lime with felspar and quartz. 

5. I have mentioned the igneous dykes of the Dicynodon-strata. 
They have always been referred to plutonic agency, but it appears to 
me that there are great difficulties in admitting such origin. They 
take, I believe, every direction of the compass, vary from eighteen 
inches to some hundreds, perhaps thousands, of yards in breadth, and 
some of them are probably fifty or more miles in length; they are 
numerous, and occur frequently from near Somerset East to the Vool 
River, but never, in my experience, or that of any one I know, pass 
the boundary of the Dicynodon-strata, nor do they disturb the rocks 
through which they cut in the base. 

6. I have mentioned the occurrence of granite-veins conformable 


56 THE GEOLOGIST. 


with the strata among which they lie. The claystone-porphyry of 
Bain, appears conformable as to individual beds, while in the mass 
it crosses the section of the country. I have uever found igneous 
rocks in the positions of upheaving rocks. I have repeatedly found 
them in positions (4,5) where they could not possibly be so. In 
Namaqualand the rocks between Springbok and Concordia were per- 
haps more decidedly gneiss-like than in any other part of the section, 
except perhaps near Kok Vontein, yet I regard these two spots (the 
former about a mile north of Springbok Vontein, the latter two 
miles south-east of Kok Vontein) as the main axial lines of the 
country. Many facts concur to prove that whatever may have been 
the cause of the upheaval of strata in this country, igneous rocks 
have had nothing to do with it. That there are considerable difficul- 
ties about the stratification of this neighbourhood, I fully believe. 
That I have no clue to the satisfactory explanation of those difficul- 
ties I am obliged to confess. To mention one or two, I believe that 
encrinites are generally local in their distribution, that is, individual 
species are confined to a few beds; and that if the same species of 
encrinite 1s found in these spots, the rocks containing them may be 
safely assigned to the same age or near it. At the northern base of 
the Coxcomb* are some nearly horizontal beds of blue and ferru- 
ginous schists containing trilobites, shell-fish, and encrinites, pro- 
nounced Devonian on good authority. The strike of these rocks is 
north 60° west nearly, and this line of strike would pass through 
Cape Reciffe. The Chatty beds of shale, which are in hills continu- 
ous with those of Port Elizabeth, would nearly correspond in strike 
with these beds; and at Chatty two or three encrinites identical 
with those of Coxcomb occur. Yet at the former place the rocks 
dip at an angle of 45°. There do not seem to be any igneous rocks 
to account for this difference. At Naroos, near Uitenhage, the slaty 
beds are associated with quartzite, and dip at 60°-70°. 

Again, the beds containing spirifers or this encrinite at Kabel- 
jouw river’s mouth, Jeffrey’s Bay, have but a shght dip on the sea- 
shore; a little inland they have a greater dip, but at Hermansdorp, 
where the same spirifers or this of encrinite occur, they have a dip of 
80° close to their junction with the quartzite. I cannot account for 
these things. I suppose no one in the present day would call quartz- 
ite an igneous or upheaving rock. Yet it is certainly my impression 
that if any rock in this country influences the change of dip in either 
rocks, quartzite does. Mr. Niven, the gentleman from whom I have 
the last fact, and who has done so in uch in throwing new light on the 
geology of this province, tells me that the quartzite, a hundred and 
eighty yards from the slate, dips 45°. If compelled to suggest a reason 
for these things, it would be, that whereas quartzite might be meta- 
morphosed by addition of matter infiltrated, claystone, porphyry, 
granite, etc., might owe their origin to mere crystalline action under 
the agency of water, thermo-electric currents, ete. This last is 
Mr. Sterry Hunt’s view, I think. | 


* Part of the Winterhoek range, mis-spelt Muterhoek in the abstract of my Paper. 


5 ¥ } Tate ‘ 
‘ = ued! 5 
. citys} 
Godan : 
nS j 
K \ 
i 7 
7 
/ 4 
i 
NS 5 
" 7 x 
» 
' en 
* ‘ 
\ * 
i ‘> 
: ‘ " ; 
Y Yo 
XY , « 
Eten 
F 5 
= a 
f 
; } 
' 3 
~ f Dy 
5 viel 
" u a 
f —— 
" 7 7 N= i/ ; 
tat pe 
piney ; . 
i) Ht ht 
fat ern sii ht 
a; x 
x. \' } A Gi 
a y J 
i 


PLATE IV. 


MOLAR TOOTH OF ELEPHAS I BEXIANUS (N.S.) 


In the National Collection, British Museum. 


8. J. Mackie del. 


ON A FOSSIL ELEPHANT FROM TEXAS (£. Teswianus). 
By Cuaries Carter Briaxe, Esa. 


The existence of a fossil species of true elephant distinct from 
Elephas primigenius in America has been only of late years brought 
under the notice of paleontologists. I have slightly ailuded to the 
subject in the ‘ Geologist,’ Vol. [V.p.470. For many years remains 
of true Elephant have been found with those of Mastodon at various 
spots within the New World. 

Cuvier (‘ Ossements Fossiles,’ ed. 1834, vol. 11. p. 145) mentions 
only one species of American elephant, the remains of which had 
been discovered in Kentucky, Carolina, Ohio, Mexico, Louisiana, 
Virginia, and Maryland. 

De Blainville (‘ Ostéographie, Eléphans, p. 157: Atlas, pl. x.) 
alludes to a tooth of fossil elephant from Texas, which is apparently 
referable to Hlephas primigenius. He also mentions other remains 
from Mexico, Mississippi, Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and Behring’s Straits. 

Leidy (‘Nebraska Fauna,’ 1852, p.9) recognizes specific distinc- 
tion between the European and American species of elephant, and 
terms the latter H. Americanus. 

Humboldt (¢ Cosmos,’ vol. i. p. 280) alludes to certain elephantine 
remains from the Mexican plateau, but gives no description which 
might identify the species. 

Dr. Carpenter (Silliman’s Journal, 2nd series, vol. 1. p. 244) de- 
scribes a collection of elephant and mastodon remains, collected by 
Mr. William Huff, from the banks of the Brazos river, near San 
Felipe de Austin (Texas), some of which are at present in the British 
Museum. Through the kindness of Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, I have 
been enabled to identify them as those originally alluded to by Dr. 
Carpenter. 

The most complete, elaborate, and philosophical conspectus of the 
affinities of the Order Proboscidea has been that from the pen of 
Dr. Falconer (Quarterly Journal Geographical Society, 1857, p. 319, 
and 1858, p. 81), in which he distinetly recognizes an American spe- 
cies of elephant (Huelephas Colwmbi), which he says has hitherto 
been undescribed. He places this apart from Hwelephas primigenius, 
in the same group as H. Indicus and Armeniacus, of which group he 
discriminates the character as having “ Colliculi approximatt, mache- 
ridibus valde undulatis.” The detailed exposition of his memoir has 
not been published up to February, 1862, although it was read on 
June 3, 1857. 

Mr. William Bollaert, F.R.G.S., who has contributed original me- 
moirs on the geography of Texas to the Geographical Society (Jour- 
nal, 1851, vol. xx. p. 115), mentions the fact that he was the dis- 
coverer of a tooth of “ Mastodon” from San Felipe de Austin, Texas. 
This tooth was carefully preserved by him, and was submitted to me 

VOL. V. I 


58 THE GEOLOGIST. 


in February, 1858. At that time I had not read Dr. Falconer’s 
paper, yet from the remarkable appearance of the tooth, the conclu- 
sion that it was a distinct species of elephant, closely allied to the 
Indian type, forced itself on me. ‘This opinion was confirmed by 
Professor Owen, and after the name of Elephas Texianus had been 
given to the species, the specimen was deposited in the British Mu- 
seum, and now forms one of the most conspicuous objects in the 
gallery devoted to Proboscidea. Professor Owen, in September, 1858, 
thought fit to adopt the name of #. Texianus for the species, in his 
eloquent address to the British Association (and also in the second 
edition of ‘ Paleontology,’ p.395). From a comparison of this tooth 
with that already possessed by the Museum from the same locality, 
described by Dr. Carpenter, I think decidedly that the remains in 
the Museum are identical with 2. primigenius, while the tooth dis- 
covered by Mr. Bollaert appears to belong to the distinct species of 
Ei. Texianus vel Columbi. This is the only specimen which I have 
seen of this type, as Dr. Falconer has not stated where the specimens 
are on which he described his species. He appends as a doubtful 
synonym, “ H. Jacksoni ?, Silliman’s Journal, 1838, vol. xxxiv. page 
363 ;” but after examination of the very bad drawings contained in 
that page, I cannot make any distinction between them and J. prz- 
migentus. The tooth of H. Texianus (m. 6, lower jaw) has enamel- 
folds much wider and much more waved and undulated than that of 
the EH. Jacksont. The canals of cement are consequently of much 
greater width, and the whole aspect of the tooth is much more like 
EH. Indicus. , 

As the British Association, in their Rules for Zoological Nomen- 
clature, have authoritatively sanctioned the principle that names not 
clearly defined, and likely to propagate important errors, may be 
changed, and as the name of #. Coluwmbi lays itself open to the grave 
charge that it is not clear whether it is named in honour of Columbus, 
or because it is found in Colombia (Venezuela y Nueva Granada), I 
trust that this name will not be accepted. That of #. Texianus, 
founded upon a yet unimpeached geographical distinction, if it has 
not the advantage of published priority, yet gives a more lucid idea of 
the nature of the species which it indicates. 

The figure by Mr. Mackie gives a better idea of its appearance 
than any mere verbal description. I however define it as ELEPHAS 
TEXIANUS, dentium molarium (m. 6), collicult undulati, mages remote 
quam in BH. Indico. Its association with #. Indicus and Armeniacus, 
by Dr. Falconer, seems warranted by its legitimate aflinities. 

The greater w idth between the enamel-folds may indicate a more 

sapid and j juicy diet than that of the larch-eating elephants of Esch- 
scholtz Bay. The nutritious prairie-grass of Texas did not require 
such formidable apparatus for its comminution as was possessed by the 
Siberian mammoths. The indication of this species, therefore, illus- 
trates the remarkable special adaptation of animals to external and 
climatal conditions, and may not be altogether irrelevant to the ques- 
tions discussed by the physio-philosophers of the present day, with 
regard to the origin of species. 


58 


ON THE MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATION OF SOME 
BRACKLESHAM BEDS. 


By T. Rupert Jonss, F.G.S. 


In Vol. I of the ‘ Geologist,’ at page 249, was published a paper 
on the preparation of sands, clays, and chalk, for microscopical pur- 
poses, under the heading of “ Geological Manipulations ;”’ and, as 
both pleasure and geological profit are to be obtained from the exact 
examination of various fossil-bearing deposits, both as to their con- 
stituents and their contents, I beg to offer you an example of the 
results of such an examination of some tertiary beds from Brackle- 
sham. These notes I have had by me several years, and their short- 
comings are so great in some respects that I should not send them, 
were it not that they may serve as a plan to sume young care- 
ful observers who might feel inclined to enter upon the strict exa- 
mination of some definite series of fossiliferous strata. What the 
series under notice is deficient of, is a statement of the exact. rela- 
tionship of these several deposits, examined nearly twenty years ago. 
I received the materials at that time from a friend who was collecting 
“ Bracklesham fossils,’—a term which will be more definite, now 
that the Rey. O. Fisher, F.G.8., has indicated the exact limits of the 
Bracklesham formation.* 

The specimens were chiefly, I believe, from Bracklesham and 
Selsea; but some may have been brought from the Isle of Wight. 
By the presence of certain fossils, however, in some of the deposits, 
their exact place may probably be determined. However deficient 
in these stratigraphical requirements the following account of the 
deposits may be, they will serve the purpose here intended, namely, 
to show young beginners what to look for in sands and clays. In- 
structions have been already given as to how such materials are to 
be examined, in the first volume, p. 249. . 

The careful microscopical examination of a good series of succes- 
sive deposits, in the way that we propose, cannot but be useful both 
to the geologist and the paleontologist. The conditions of deposit 
will be elucidated by the proportions of fine and coarse materials in 
the beds; especially if these be traced along a considerable tract by 
the examination of many samples of the deposit, through its varia- 
tions from clay to sand (or vice versd), or in its changes from an 
argillaceous or arenaceous to a calcareous condition. Such variations 
are not always recognized with sufficient exactness by the eye or by 
the pocket-glass, and require mechanical, if not chemical, analysis; 
recourse being had to the aid of acids in determining the relative pro- 
porticns of lime and other constituents. Except by careful separa- 
tion in water, and patient sorting and picking, the minute shells and 
other fossils cannot be obtained in anything like a fair average ; and 
year by year the Foraminifera, Entomostraca, Bryozoa, and the small 


* See Report of the Geological Society’s Proceedings, Dec. 4th, 1861. 


60 THE GEOLOGIST. 


fry of the Mollusca, are becoming more and more valuable as leading 
characteristics of strata, as our knowledge of these microzoa in the 
fossil and recent states advances. 

Such researches as these, made on any series of deposits, whether 
British or foreign, must be of use, either for the improvement and 
correction of observations already made and published, or for the 
groundwork of future descriptions of strata and their fossils. 

Schafhautl, Sorby, Ehrenberg, Reade, Bryson, and others, have 
worked at this subject in their own several ways, and it is to be 
hoped that not only will these older labourers continue to work in 

““ Microgeology”’ or “ Clinology,” as the study is termed, but that 
others, with equal patience and acumen, will come forward to labour 
in this wide and promising, but as yet little cultivated field of re- 
search. 


The Results of the Examination of Five Specimens of Sands and Clays 
Srom the “ Bracklesham Beds” of the Isle of Wight Basin. 
No. 1. Light-blue sandy clay;* very friable; full of crushed 
shells. 
Quantity examined, 480 grains. 


Grs. Proportions. 


Calcareous Shells, fragments of shells, | ei 

and other fossils a Ree sho ae 136 ue 
Arenaceous NAMGE Rai ah ci. toe orcs 1388 1104 29 
Arpillaceous ) WGlay§ic.-c.5.0055 cese esos — 250 ~=—-2000 52 


| 480° 3840 100 
No. 2. Very light-blue, friable, sandy clay. 
Quantity examined, 480 grains. 
Grs. Grs. Proportions. 


Calcareous Shells, etc.,and fragments 23 184 5° 
Arenaceous SANG erent, acerca. 185 1480 38°5 
‘Arenlageous’ -Clay?ses. os. eects owe eeoe es 272 2176 56°5 


480 38840 100°0 
No. 8. Dark-green clayey sand; very friable. 
Quantity examined, 3840 grains. 
Grs. Proportions. 
13 


Caleareous Shells ete., and fragments. ......... 497 
MURDER DIES <sercncseskh rc steal see - 20 .K 
AESURPEOHE vapid SUN ea Oe O88 sao f 068 
Arqillaceoas! Olay. Gate i 2. eR SS 793 23°5 
3840  100°0 


* The clays and sands in this paper are described as they appear when dry. 

+ The specimens No. 3, 4, and 5 being given in lots of 3840 grains, Nos. 1 and 2 
(which were examined in lots of 480 grains) are given also as 3840 grains for the sake 
of comparison. With regard also to Nos. 1 and 2, their lists of fossils must be regarded 
as less perfect in relation to the other specimens, on account of the small quantity of the 
deposit examined. 

t For the list of fossils, see the table further on. 

§ The sands of all the lots are chiefly composed of green grains (silicate of iron ?) and 
quartz sand. Further details respecting the relative size, angularity, ete., of the sand- 
grains in the several specimens ought to have been given. 


RUPERT JONES—ON BRACKLESHAM BEDS. 


61 


No. 4. Reddish-yellow sand, very friable, abounding with large 


Nummulites. 
Quantity examined, 3840 grains. 


Grs, Proportions, 


Calcareous Shells* etc., and fragments ......... 878 23 
Pebbles of flint, greenstone, iron- 
Arenaceous } stone, and brown pellucid quartz... 23 } 58 
SUT a tee a ee SA 2205 
Ferruginous concretion ............ 12 19 
PAG UMAGCEOUS MOLY 0 fi cco soc ce ses Samu geborss+ gies ets 722 
3840 100 


No. 5. Light-blue sandy clay; hard, but easily separated in hot 


water. 
Quantity examined, 3,840 grains. 


Grs. Proportions. 


Calcareous Shells, etc., and fragments ......... LG 2 

AECHACEOUS) CSANG(VeLY MIN) .<..5).Psbaqcdcses i s0 ce 1296 33°8 

Bymitoustcaneretion (face... «ts 6s. ss FO 18 

PUPCTILTG EOS, y CLAY comes) seaceacer sin Retteae veo suek as 2428 63:2 
3840 100°0 


TABLE OF THE FOSSILS FROM THE FIVE SPECIMENS OF 


“ BRACKLESHAM BEDS.” 


Now Ie No. 2. No: 3. No. 4. No. 5. 
Fish Bones. | Fish Tooth and | Fish Bones, Fish Bone and | Fish Bones and 
Otolite. Teeth, and Otolite. Otolites. 
Otolite. 
MOLLUSCA: GASTEROPODA. 
Murex. 
Fusus ? 
Ringicula. Ringicula. Ringicula. 
Pleurotoma. Pleurotoma, 2 s. 
Voluta. 
Natica. Natica. Natica. Natica. 
Cerithium. Cerithium. 
Potamis. Potamis, 2 sp. 
Turritella. Turritella. Turritella. Turritella, 8 sp. | Turritella, 2 sp. 
Solarium. Solarium ? Solarium. Solarium. 
Infundibulum. 
Dentalium. Dentalium. Dentalium. Dentalium. Dentalium. 
Planorbis. 
Bulla (minute). Bulla, 


* The shells in this specimen are larger than in the other lots. In the latter the 
shells, etc. found in this examination were chiefly of small size, although larger shells, 
of course, are sometimes abundantly distributed in the mass of the beds. 


62 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. 
Ostrea. Ostrea. Ostrea. Ostrea. 
Pecten. ; 
Pinna ? 
Area. 
Cucullea. Cuculleea. | Cuculleea. 
Chama. 
Cyprina, 2 sp. 
Astarte ? 
Crassatella. Crassatella. 
Venericardia. Venericardia. Venericardia. | Venericardia. 
Venus ? 
Cytherea. Cytherea. Cytherea.” 
Corbula. Corbula, 2 sp. | Corbula, 2 sp. | Corbula. 
Panopeea ? 
Pholas. 
BRYOZOA. 
| 
Cellepora Cellepora 
petiolus. Flustra. petiolus. 
Lunulites. | 
ENTOMOSTRACA. 
Cythere scabro- 
papulosa. 
C. eostellata. 
C. horrescens. 
C. cornuta. 
Cytherella com- 
pressa. 
C. Muensteri. 
ECHINODERMATA. 
| | Echinoderm. | Echinoderm.- | Echinoderm. 
ANNELIDA. 
| | Serpula ? | 
CORAL. 


Turbinolia sul- 
cata. 


Turbinolia sul- 
cata. 


MURRAY—WALLABIES’ HOLES IN AUSTRALIA. 63 


FORAMINIFERA. 
Nummulina N. levigata. 
leevigata. 
Nummulina N. scabra. N. scabra. 
scabra. 
Nummulina N. variolaria. N. variolaria. 
variolaria. 
Miliola (Trilo- Miliola (Quin- 
culina). queloculina). 
Guttulina. Guttulina. 
Rotalia obscura 
(and others). 
Lignite. Lignite. 
Pyrites. Pyrites. Pyrites. 


Should one wish to take in hand the examination of a series of the 
tertiary strata of any part of the Isle of Wight basin, in the manner 
above suggested, well assorted samples, collected and labelled with 
care, can be readily obtained of Henry Keeping, of Freshwater, who 
is an intelligent and trustworthy collector, and whose charges are 
moderate. 


ON THE OCCURRENCE OF A PECULIAR SUBSTANCE 
IN THE LIMESTONE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 


By W. Murray, Esq., C.E. 


Taking a section across the Murray River Valley, in South Austra- 
lia, for a distance of about forty miles from west to east, we have (as 
shown in the accompanying diagram) two parallel ranges, and on the 


3 8 Se 

og tos} o 

q S 4 y x 

a) = sy y mH q 

® .s H Oo Oo u hoe 
+o oO ~~ a) oo 
Mm OO a »~ »~ 

mn 
as les) el Bs 

! | 


ieee tvs Vourray. 


. 
\ 
‘\ 
if 


c= On 


JIN 

Fig. 1. 
outer flank of the western range there are at some places micaceous 
strata (A), having a steep inclination, resting against the contorted 


strata of the range, sections of which are seen in gaps and gullies, 
with steep sides, in some instances 800 to 1000 feet deep. These 


64 THE GEOLOGIST. 


hills are partly granitic ; the granite is reddish, very readily decom- 
posed, and worn by the rain and weather here and there into strange 
grotesque figures. There are well-defined metallic lodes in this range. 
East of these hills are three terraces leading down to the river. 
The first is the broadest, extending about two-thirds the distance, 
and falls twenty feet to the river. It is composed chiefly of sand; 
but rocks similar to those of the western rock crop out here and 
there. The second terrace averages about two-ninths of the distance 
between the range and the river: it falls about thirty feet; some- 
times not more than ten or fifteen feet ; at places, however, more than 
fifty feet. The third or lowest terrace is only one-ninth of the dis- 
tance, and nearly level with the river: in fact, it is overflowed when 
the water is up. The river itself flows slowly, having a fall of about 
one foot a mile. It is at the fall or escarpment between the second 
and the third terrace, on an exposed face of friable limestone, that 
the peculiar substance referred to in this notice is found. ‘The 
whitish limestone (similar to the bryozoal limestone of the Mount 
Gambier district) has its exposed edges excavated by innumerable 
burrows of wallabies, 
kangaroo - rats, opos- 
i il sums, ete., which live 
= am <i and breed here in count- 
— a less numbers, far in the 
My i nu. body of the rock, and 
the upper part of the 
openings of these bur- 
rows are coated with a 
softish-brown fetid ma- 
Fig. 2. terial, which appears to 
be the concreted exhalations and effluvia coming from the heated in- 
teriors of these long-inhabited and thickly tenanted burrows. The 
concretion is thickest just within and at the mouth of a burrow, and 
dies away upwards on the face of the rock, just as the stain of smoke 
coming from a crevice is dark at the fissure, and becomes fainter and 
fainter up the side of the wall. This material 1s several inches thick, 
and, owing to the dryness of the climate, is not washed away by rain. 
In England the specimens brought over are somewhat deliquescent. 
It has not yet been examined chemically. 

This curious concomitant of cave-habitats in a warm and dry cli- 
mate seems worth notice as connected with the subject of bone-caves. 
The same country (South Australia) is likely to afford valuable in- 
formation relative to the origin and early condition of subterranean 
caves and fissures; for the limestone of the Mount Gambier district 
is extensively excavated by subterranean drainage, on which the 

water-supply of the towns and stations is, to a large extent, depen- 
dent. 

The samples of brown material referred to in the above remarks were 
obtained from a place on the River Murray, near the Reedy Creek 
(Toongell) or the Thirty-nine Sections, called Pontarra, or Green 


AA Wallabies’ Holes. River Murray. 


a 
ee es eee Pian 


CORRESPONDENCE. 65 


Corner, and at Cooloodee. It is about fifty miles due-east of Adelaide, 
and about 35° south latitude, and 139° 20’ east longitude. I found it 
while making my surveys for the direct eastern line of railway from 
Adelaide to the River Murray (see Council Paper, No. 47, Septem- 
ber 10th, 1858, S. A.). 

The River Murray and its tributaries drain an immense district 
in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, discharging it- 
self into the Lake Alexandria in South Australia; thence to the sea 
it is navigable for 1500 miles. 

Our readers are referred also to the Journal of the Geological 
Society, No. 68, August, 1860, pages 252-261, for some account of 
the geology of the South-Australian district above referred to.— 
Epit. GEOLOGIST. | 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


The Accumulation of Cave Deposits. 


Dear Srr,—Without offering any opinion on the Rev. H. Eley’s spe- 
culation, in the December Number of the Gzotoaist, on the mode of “ The 
Accumulation of Cave Deposits,” I presume it is quite safe to conclude 
that it could only apply, at most, to caverns which were inhabited by 
animals. 

Now, though we have satisfactory evidence that some caverns—Kent’s 
Hole near this place, for example—were the homes of carnivora, others, 
and some of them very famous, are entirely destitute of any such indica- 
tions, whilst their distinctly stratified deposits were certainly due to the 
long-continued action of water. 

Amongst the numerous caves near the sea-level which occur in the lime- 
stone cliffs between Berry Head and Mudstone Bay, near Brixham, there 
is one into which the sea only enters at spring-tide high-water, or during 
very heavy gales. It is only accessible from the sea, and is situated at 
the apex of a small cove, the mouth of which is a passage, probably about 
twenty feet wide, between two walls of limestone; within it is somewhat 
wider. Hxcept at high-water, a small, steep, terraced, shingle beach lies 
between the sea and the mouth of the cavern. The cove is simply a gallery, 
at least eighty feet long, about four feet wide, in some places not more 
than three feet high, but commonly high enough for a man to stand erect. 
In fact, it is nothing more than one of the north and south joints, or lines 
of fracture, so common in the district, eroded into a tunnel. 

A considerable drip of water, apparently free from earthy matter, enters 
through the roof. 

When recently visiting it, I found the floor, consisting of fine sea sand, 
more or less covered with fresh seaweed, which was most abundant at the 
inner end. About halfway in, I picked up several disjoined bones, pro- 
bably parts of the same animal, undoubtedly a terrestrial mammal, and, ~ 
judging from the state of the epiphyses, a young individual. I have still 
some of them by me. With one exception they are quite free from all 
marks of abrasion. 

The sea had also carried in some evidences of the existence of man ; 

VOL. V. K 


66 THE GEOLOGIST. 


amongst other things I remember a portion of a tin kettle and a fragment 
of a basket, of the coarse kind used on board colliers and other ships. 

Here, then, is a cavern which the sea is at present filling, and in which 
it is depositing relics of man and portions of terrestrial mammals, but not, 
so far as I could discover, any marine organism, excepting the seaweed. 
Probably a careful search might have detected some small shells and other 
sea-offerings amongst the weeds, but I certainly saw nothing of the kind, 
nor were there any of the larger mollusks so constantly cast up on our 
beaches. There appears no reason, @ priori, why some caves belonging 
to earlier periods may not have received their contents in a similar 
manner. 

Again, those who have visited the Cheddar Cliffs, in Somersetshire, 
probably remember that a considerable body of water issues from the foot 
of the right-hand cliff, not far above the village of Cheddar. This stream 
commences its subterranean journey about two miles off, where it enters a 
““swallet.” 

It is scarcely possible to believe that it fails to introduce specimens of the 
natural history of the district into this cavern, or that it does not deposit 
organic relics, together with mud and stones, in at least some of the shel- 
tered nooks and recesses which probably occur along its course of fully two 
miles. 

I have no doubt that, at least, one of the celebrated caves of this county 
was in this way furnished with the materials which have rendered it 
famous. 

T am far from believing that the history of any cavern can be regarded 
as generally typical. Neither of the agencies above described could have 
produced the phenomena observed at Orestone, near Plymouth, where, in 
all probability, the fossils and the materials in which they were inhumed 
found a passage through an open fissure into the cavernous interior of the 
limestone. 

It would not be safe to generalize from any individual case, whether it 
be Kent’s Hole, Windmill Hill Cave at Brixham, the caverns at Orestone, 
or a dirty dog on a study hearth-rug. 

: I am, yours, etc., Wu. PENGELLY. 
Lamorna, Torquay, December 14th, 1861. 


Northampton Sands. 


Dear Sir,—In replying to Dr. Wright’s communication in the last 
number of your excellent periodical, I offer him my apologies. The origin 
of my mistake was, in carelessly reading that part of Mr. Aveline’s ‘ Me- 
moir on the Geological Survey of a part of Northamptonshire,’ where 
he speaks of the confusion that formerly existed with regard to these sands. 

These beds have been assigned to the Upper Lias, although not by Dr. 
Wright, and are so coloured on more than one geological map. For in- 
stance, in Reynolds’s ‘ Geological Atlas,’ lately published under the revision 
of Professor Morris, all the country over which the Northampton sands are 
so well displayed has been coloured, with the Zias, brown, a mistake which 
should be avoided if asecond edition of that neat and otherwise useful little 
work is contemplated. 

The fact is, no one knows exactly where to place or with what to class 
these sands. lias they assuredly are not. Mr. Aveline considers them 
to be equivalent to the Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire. This seems likely, 


= 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 67 


both from their position and their organic remains. But a deal yet remains 
to be done with them; they have yet to be accurately traced, searched, 
and studied. Strata which yield, as they do, such valuable iron-ore, de- 
mand attention and examination. 

Yours very truly, 


JoHN H. Macatister. 
Oxford, January \st, 1862. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Geotoaists’ Assocration.—The ordinary monthly meeting was held 
on Monday, December 2nd, at 5 Cavendish Square. The Rev. Thomas 
Wiltshire, M.A., F.G.S., President, in the chair. The following papers 
were read :—‘‘ On two beds of re-deposited Crag Shells in the vicinity of 
Yarmouth, Norfolk,” by C. B. Row, Esq., F.G.S. “On a Newly Dis- 
covered Outlier of the Hempstead Strata on the Osborne Estate, Isle of 
Wight,” by Dr. E. P. Wilkins, F.G.S. ‘On the Exchange of Fossils 
among the Members,” by A. Bolt, Esq., A.A. 

Professor Tennant exhibited several specimens of gold recently forwarded 
from Nova Scotia to this country. He read extracts froma Report which has 
made by Mr. Howe to Lord Mulgrave, the Governor of the Colony,in Septem- 
ber last, from which it appears that the gold-discoveries made in the colony 
in 1860 were unimportant, the gold being found in quantities so small as 
not to afford a satisfactory return for the labour of seeking for it. The 
exitement had accordingly subsided. Last March, however, a man acci- 
dentally discovered a piece of gold among the pebbles at a brook; this led 
to further investigation, and it is now generally believed that gold in 
abundance exists in the colony within an easy distance of means of trans- 
port, and Mr. Howe considers that the Government will be warranted in 
assuming that at the localities where the chief working has been hitherto 
earried on, viz. Tangier, Lunenburg, Lawrencetown, and Lake Thomas, 
gold-mining will be permanently established as a new branch of industry, 
tempting to the capitalist and attractive to the emigrant. The gold is 
found in quartz veins and in the sand on the shore. Specimens of gold 
in the matrix, and some of the gold grains found in the sand were exhibited, 
as also two ingots of pure gold cast. from: that discovered in the above- 
mentioned workings. 

Mr. Rickard exhibited a machine recently patented, the object of which 
is to render peat available as fuel, to the same extent as coal, at a greatly 
reduced price. 

Mancuester Literary anD PuitosopHicaL. Sociery.—November 
26th, 1861. J.P. Joule, LL.D., President, in the chair. A Paper was 
read by Mr. H. W. Binney, F.R.S., entitled ‘ Additional Observations on 
the Permian Beds of South Lancashire.” This was a continuation of two 
previous papers read before the Society. Since that time the author had 
made further observations on the Permian strata at Heaton Norris, near 
Stockport; Medlock Vale, between Ashton and Manchester; Choriton- 
upon-Medlock, and Ordsal near Manchester; and Skillaw Clough and 
Bentley Brook, near Newburgh, in the west of Lancashire. 

At Heaton Norris, in the sand delf of Mr. Howard, near the railway 
station, the lower New Red Sandstone was seen dipping to the south-west at 
an angle of 25°. This was succeeded by red and variegated marls having 


68 THE GEOLOGIST. 


a similar dip. These last-named strata were overlapped by the Trias, 
which dips to the south-west at an angle of 12°. 
At Heaton Mersey the following section was met with :— 


Feet 

Daas) Bee OPER T= ert EIR Ns 5 5, cs RE SO 45 
Permian—Red and varigated marls containing Tetones Abs hen ewes 129 
Lower New Red Sandstone grooved iWenseiiete desea eee 402 

576 


The Permian beds were cut off by a fault near the railway station at 
Heaton Norris (first noticed by Mr. Hull, of the Geological Survey), which 
brought in the Trias. This rock occupied the district between that town 
and Goyt’s Hall, in the Marple valley, where the lower part of the middle 
coal-measures was seen in nearly a vertical position. ~ 

The author considered Mr. Howard’s sand delf to be a likely place 
for ascertaining whether a coal-field worth working existed under the 
town of Stockport. 

The next was a section made by Mr. John Wood, at Medlock Vale, be- 
tween Waterhouses, near Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manchester. It was 
as follows :— 


¥eet. In. 

Dall AS ue ee Fes Oh Sb va sabi Seber eee 26 0 

{Wei Tie Meee Un eee ee ee RCD COMES Rep CC wate!) 
Permian—Red marls, with beds of limestone and five beds of 

PAV SUIN 2) a, s race a apseeepblecae nesta Seacee eee eRe 246 3 

Lower New Red Sandstone snc. cee etek. coe noe ee 375 11 

GoalemeGasunes: nomen socics icsac Neer roche etc ee about 90 0O 

761 2 


What these coal-measures were, whether above or under the Bradford 
Four-feet Mine, it was at present impossible to say; but it was to be 
hoped that some mine would be met with to enable us to determine the 
value of the great: tract of coal-measures lying between Ashton-under- 
Lyne, Oldham, Middleton, and Manchester. Mr. Wood had done more 
than any other gentleman to clear up this point, and it was to be desired 
that he should meet with a.good seam of coal, both for his own sake and 
that of the public. 

The third section mentioned was at the sugar-works of Messrs. Fryer 
and Co., in Chester Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The fol- 
lowing beds were there met with :— 


Feet 
STNRTAS oie, cet stom joss ah adetec aeach naw aks ete Sac Oe anna hae apenas eee 114 
Permian—Red marls with limestones... ...... 0... ccc. eee eee cen eeeeceess 237 
Coarse. red sandstone with pebbles... 1.0.0.0... seecseess ss 45 
Coursesred “sandStone reece: oon vata cdnes pon pean 24 
Coal-measures, consisting of red shaly marls and Hmestones (Ard- 
WICH) iene ceca eee ea he aoa RIN ee bn eagss heen a 126 
546 


The limestones in the last-named strata contained specimens of Micro- 
conchus carbonarius and scales of Paleoniscus, which clearly proved them 
to be similar beds to those of the upper coal-field at Ardwick, to which 
they bear every resemblance in physical character. 


The oceurrence of coal-measures on the south side of the city of Man- 


chester is quite new and of great importance, showing that such strata at 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 69 


places are met with under Permian and Trias deposits much nearer the 
surface than was previously suspected, and where the upper rocks gave no 
evidence of their proximity. ‘The above bore has proved beyond doubt 
that a band of coal-measures lies under the south of Chorlton-on-Medlock, 
and possibly extends to Heaton Norris, being probably brought up by the 
great Pendleton fault, which most likely passes through the south of Man- 
chester and joins the fault seen near the railway station at Heaton Norris 
previously alluded to. 

In the fourth section, at Ordsal, Messrs. Worrall found the Trias beds 
four hundred and sixty feet in thickness without going through them. At 
the bottom of the bore the water became so salt that they: discontinued the 
work, it being no longer fit for dyeing and such-like purposes. This is the 
first instance, to the author’s knowledge, where salt water has been met 
with in the Trias near Manchester. 

The fifth and sixth sections were at Skillaw Clough and Bentley Brook, 
to the north of the Newburgh station on the Manchester and Southport 
railway. ‘These were some time since discovered by Mr. E. Hull, of the 
Geological Survey, and described shortly by that gentleman in the sheet 
explaining the map of the district. Further particulars were given of the 
details of both sections, and an analysis of the limestone was produced, 
which showed it to differ in its chemical characters from the thin ribbon- 
bands found in the Permian marls near Manchester, Patricroft, Astley, 
and Leigh; it was very like the yellow magnesian limestone found at 
Stank, in Furness, North Lancashire. Probably it might prove to bea 
different bed, and more like the great central deposit of magnesian lime- 
stone of Yorkshire than the thin beds previously alluded to. 

December 24th, 1861.—J. P. Joule, LL.D., President, in the chair. Mr. 
Binney stated that many years since he had communicated to the Society a 
description of some markings on the surface of the Kerridge flags. He 
afterwards published, in Vol. X (New Series) of the Memoirs, a Paper on 
similar markings, found in the Upholland flags, near Wigan, and attributed 
then to the burrowing of an animal similar to the common lug-worm of 
our coast, the Arenicola piscatorum. Similar holes have since been found 
in rocks of various ages, from the Cambrian upwards. 

The position of the Kerridge flags is, probably, one of the best ascer- 
tained in whole coal-field. It is in the lower division above the millstone 
grit. In the lower coal-field there are two main beds of flagstones : the first, 
or lower, the Rochdale series, under the “rough rock ;” and the upper, or 
Upholland or Kerridge series, above the same rock, the chief workable beds 
of the lower coal-field of Rochdale and other districts, often termed the 
“mountain mines,” lying midway between these two flag-deposits. This 
series of coal is now, and has been for many years, wrought under the 
Kerridge, flags so as prove beyond doubt the position of the latter. Some 
discussions have lately taken place at Macclesfield as to whether the Ker- 
ridge beds were Permian or Carboniferous. No one who ever saw Per- 
mian beds, could ever for one moment suppose Kerridge flags to belong to 
those strata. It is possible that Permian beds may exist in the low dis- 
trict lying between Kerridge and Macclesfield, as they have been met with 
at Hug Bridge on the south, and Norbury Brook on the north, but up to 
this time they have not been proved to be there. 

Considerable interest has been excited by the discovery of what were 
supposed to be the foot-marks of some animals on the surface of the flags. 
He had been induced to make two journeys to Kerridge for the purpose 
of examining them; but although plenty of worm-holes and ripple-marks 
are to be found on the surface of the Kerridge flags, as yet he had seen no 
tracks of animals upon them. 


70 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Mr. Edward Hull, B.A., called attention to instances of glacial striations 
recently discovered by Mr. G. H. Morton, at Liverpool. During a recent 
visit to that town in connexion with his duties on the Geological Survey, 
Mr. Hull: was kindly conducted by Mr. Morton to the spots where the 
striz are visible. One of these is at the south, the other at the north side 
of the town, and at the latter the extent of surface exposed is several 
hundred square yards. The rock-surfaces had been protected by a thick 
coating of boulder clay, which has been removed for brick-making. It is 
owing to the protection thus afforded to the rock that the striations are 
preserved in all their original freshness. The rock belongs to the New 
Red Sandstone, and is a moderately hard reddish-brown and yellowish 
building-stone. There are two systems of striew, the primary one ranging 
N.N.W., the secondary nearly east-and west. Of the latter, the markings 
are comparatively unimportant, but are very clear and sharp. The primary 
striz run in remarkably straight lines—in the form of deep groovings and 
seratches, and the whole surface of the sandstone is worn down to one 
uniform gently-sloping plane. 

It appeared evident, from the directions of the strie, that they had been 
produced by icebergs coming from the north, im all probability from the 
Cumberland mountains, where glaciers are known to have existed during 
the period of the boulder clay, or rather earlier. The secondary groovings 
might have been produced by bergs coming from North Wales, but this 
appeared very problematical. The interest attached to these cases of gla- 
ciation:was stated to arise from their position at so great a distance from 
the Cumberland range. In the immediate neighbourhood of these moun- 
tains, as also in that of North Wales, ice-moulded surfaces have frequently 
been observed, but never before on the New Red Sandstone of Lancashire 
or Cheshire. 

Mr. E. W. Binney referred to the existence of similar striations on the 
Carboniferous limestone of Great Ofme’s Head, where the groovings were 
found to range northward, or outwards from the mountains of the interior. 
He also noticed the distribution of the Shap granite, blocks of which he 
had lately seen on the high Silurian and Carboniferous ranges to the south 
and south-east of Shap Fell. 

Mr. Brockbank stated that, on the high lands of Yorkshire and Derby- 
shire, he had observed erratic blocks which could be traced to their 
northern sources. 

Mr. Hull said, it had been shown, by a large number of facts, that the 
direction of the erratic blocks of the Drift period was from north to south, 
so that there must have been some predominating influence in operation, 
either prevalent winds, or, more probably, oceanic currents, tending to 
impel southward the icebergs and rafts which were the vehicles for the 
transportation of the erratic boulders and pebbles. 

GrOLoGIcaL Society oF Lonpon.—Janwary 8, 1862.—Sir C. Lyell in 
the chair. The following communications were read:—1. ‘On the Car- 
boniferous Limestone of Oreton and Farlow, Clee Hills, Shropshire.” By 
Professor John Morris, V.P.G.S., and George E. Roberts, Esq. With a 
Note upon a new species of Pterichthys, by Sir P. de M.G. Egerton, Bart., 
M.P., F.G.S. The rocks described in this paper are a series of thin beds 
of limestone and sandstone lying between the Old Red Sandstone of South 
Shropshire and the Millstone Grit which forms the basement of the Titter- 
stone Clee coal-field. In consequenee of the opening of new quarries and the 
eutting of a roadway through the Farlow ridge transversely to the strike 
of these deposits, the authors were enabled to add somewhat to the de- 
scription of the locality given in ‘The Silurian System.’ The series of de- 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 71 


posits from the Old Red “‘ cornstone,” upwards, was shown by them to be: 
—1. Laminated yellow sandstones, with pebble-beds and sands. 2. Bright- 
yellow sandstones, containing Pterichthys. 3. Brecciated yellow sand- 
stones, pebble-beds, sandy layers, and laminated sandstones. 4. Sandy 
and concretionary limestone. 5. Grey oolitic limestones, containing pala- 
tal teeth of great size. 6. Clays, with ferruginous bands. 7. Shaly eri- 
noidal limestones. 8. Clays with limestone concretions, and shaly lime- 
stones. Against the last-mentioned bed the Millstone Grit rests uncon- 
formably. These beds thicken out at Oreton, a mile east of this Farlow 
section, and are there extensively worked for various economic purposes, 
the oolitic limestones, locally termed “‘jumbles,”’ being used for decorative 
purposes under the name of Clee Hill Marble. In describing the physical 
conditions of the localities, mention was made of the “ Mole river,” which, 
losing itself at the west end of the ridge, takes a subterranean course 
nearly parallel with its axis, and reappears at its lower end, a mile distant. 
An interesting fact was communicated to the authors by the Rev. J. Wil- 
liams, of Farlow, of an accidental accumulation in the hollow of its inlet of 
a body of water estimated at 1,635,000 cubic feet, the whole of which was 
carried away in forty-eight hours by the sudden clearance of the channel. 
In describing the paleontology of these rocks, the authors specially drew 
attention to the fortunate discovery, in the yellow sandstone of Farlow, of 
Pterichthys macrocephalus (spec. nov., Egerton), made while reducing the 
thickness of a large ripple-marked slab sent them by Mr. Weaver Jones in 
illustration of the physical conditions of the deposit. This Pterichthys pro- 
ving identical with the fragment previously found in the Farlow Sandstone 
by Thos. Baxter, Esq., F.G.S., they attached to the paper a descriptive note 
on that fossil, by Sir Philip Egerton, in which the Farlow Pterichthys was 
contrasted with that of Dura Den, and additional proof given of the identity 
of the genera Pamphractus and Pierichthys. In addition to pterichthyoid 
remains, scales of two species of Holoptychius, one probably new, had been 
found by them. ‘The richness of the overlying limestones in palatal teeth 
was shown by a fine series of examples, amongst which Orodus ramosus, of 
unusual size and in perfect condition, and an undescribed Pecilodus, of 
great magnitude, were most conspicuous. Other genera represented were 
Helodus, Psammodus, Cladodus, Cochliodus, Petalodus, and Ctenopty- 
chius. Ichthyodorulites, of large size and rich ornament, chiefly belong- 
ing to the genera Ctenacanthus and Oracanthus, accompany these teeth. 
The notices of the invertebrate fauna given by the authors proved the as- 
sumed lowness of the Oreton Limestones in the Mountain Limestone series 
—the zone of Rhynconella pleurodon being well marked, crinoidal and 
bryozoan remains abundant though fragmentary, and corals nearly absent. 
A large series of Pterichthyes and of rock-specimens were exhibited in il- 
lustration by Mr. George E. Roberts; and a collection of palatal teeth 
was liberally sent for exhibition by W. Weaver Jones, Esq., of Cleobury 
Mortimer, and by Edward Baugh, Esq., of Bewdley. 

2. “On some Fossil Plants, showing Structure, from the Lower Coal 
Measures of Lancashire.” By E. W. Binney, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. After 
noticing the views taken of the structure of Lepidodendron by Hooker and 
others, the author proceeded to describe three portions of calcified stems, 
Lepidodendroid in external appearance, two of which exhibit in section a 
central axis composed, not of cellular tissue, but of large, transversely 
barred, hexagonal vessels. These two specimens the author refers to a new 
species, Sigillaria vascularis. The third specimen differs from the others 
im the absence of the thin radiating cylinder of barred vessels around the 
central axis ; this he terms Lepidodendron vasculare. Microscopical pre- 
parations and photographs of sections were supplied by the author. 


G2, THE GEOLOGIST. 


3. “Supplemental Notes on the Plant-beds of Central Asia.’’ By the 
Rev. 8. Hislop. Ina Letter to the Assistant-Secretary. Mr. Hislop, in 
noticing the discovery of more remains of plants, insects, and fishes at 
Kota on the Pranhita, stated that he certainly now thought that the ich- 
thyolitic beds of Kota (probably Lower Jurassic in age) are higher in rela- 
tive position than the plant-sandstone of Nagpur, which, with the Sironcha 
sandstone underlying the Kota limestone, belong to the Damuda group. 
He remarked also that, in his opinion, the Zeniopteris of Kampti would 
prove that the Damuda and Rajmahal groups cannot be widely separated. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


Mammattan Rematns.—Fractured bones of Bos primigenius have been 
found on the road between Kelvedon and Coggesham, Hssex, by W. H. 
Thelwall, Esq., who has submitted them to me for identification.— Yours 
faithfully, CuartEes Carter BAKE. 

Fosstz Cocoons or Lrecnres.—Dr. Gergens, of Mayence, has lately 
suggested that the so-called fossil eggs of snakes, found in some of the 
freshwater deposits of Germany, may be fossil cocoons of leeches (N. Jahrb. 
1861, p. 670). Under these circumstances it may be worth while for those 
who possess specimens of the egg-like bodies found in the freshwater strata 
of the Isle of Wight (and which have been thought to be either coprolitic 
or the eggs of Bulimus, or of freshwater tortoises), to re-examine them, 
and compare them with the sponge-like oval cocoon of the common leech. 
Mr. F. EK. Edwards figures several of these oviform bodies in his Mono- 
eraph on the Hocene Gasteropods, published by the Paleontographical 
Society.—Huirvupo. 

Hamesuire Bastn.—S1r,—Would you kindly solve the following ques- 
tions for me, to which [have not been able to find any satisfactory answers 
in the text-books which are commonly available P 

1. What was the extent of the Hampshire Basin; and when did the up- 
heaval of the present range of chalk hills to the north and west take 
place; and did the sea, which covered the present New Forest district, 
ever wash against these latter? 

2. When did the severance of the line of chalk between Ballard Head, 
in Dorsetshire, and St. Christopher’s Cliff, in the Isle of Wight, take 

lace P 
4 3. Could the following animals be said to be coexistent at any period of 
the Middle Eocene formation (and what ?),—Dichodon cuspidatus, Hyeno- 
don, Paloplotheriwm anneetens, and Spalacodon ? 

4. What was the climate of the country when the freshwater deposits 
took place at HordellP—Your constant reader, W. B. H., Lymington. 

1. The Hampshire basin was not an isolated area, but continuous with 
the London basin; the deposits in the two areas differing according to 
depth of sea, presence of rivers, etc. The uprise of the chalk hills took 

lace probably during some portion of the Pliocene period. The New 
frameset district, as now existing, has been covered either by the sea or by 
a lake in the Pleistocene period. 2. In the Pleistocene period. 


3. Yes; during the Middle Eocene period Paplotherium, Paleotherium,. 


and others, existed with Hyenodon, in the western European area. 
4, Probably much warmer than at present—subtropical. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 73 


Notice oF Human Remains 1N Cornnwatu.—Dear Sir,— While read- 
ing the Autobiography of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, I met with the 
following passage in one of her letters, which, as bearing on a most in- 
teresting subject at the present time, deserves to be further investigated 
by those of your readers who reside near the place mentioned, in order to 
discover the truth of her statement.. 

In describing her journey from Truro to Falmouth, she says, ‘“‘ Near 
Gwennap is a place worth seeing, called Carnon Stream Works. Instead 
of mining for tin, they here direct streams over the sides of the hills, so 
as to wash down the loose tin, which is here termed ‘stream tin.’ Here 
have been found many interesting antiquities,—a pickaxe made of elk’s- 
horn, fimt arrow-heads, and human skeletons,—buried beneath several 
strata (alternately of fresh-water and marine shells), twenty-four feet from 
the present surface of the ground.” This was written in 1825. 

Yours truly, R. D., Berwick-upon-Tweed. 

THe Coat Trapvr.—The total shipments of coal foreign and coastwise 
last year are estimated at 19,161,615 tons, as compared with 18,159,488 
tons in 1860, and 17,218,972 tons in 1859. Newcastle last year shipped 
1,916,588 tons of coal and 128,773 tons of coke oversea, and 2,345,017 tons 
of coal and 20,972 tons of coke coastwise ; Sunderland, 1,023,495 tons of 
coal and 39,319 tons of coke oversea, and 1,881,299 tons of coal and 268 
tons of coke coastwise ; the Hartlepools, 595,674 tons of coal and 18,566 
tons of coke oversea, and 1,402,258 tons of coal and 6,508 tons of coke 
coastwise ; Liverpool, 650,106 tons of coal and 9,582 tons of coke oversea ; 
Cardiff, 1,123,557 tons of coal and 5,153 tons of coke oversea, and 880,961 
tons of coal and 7,976 tons of coke coastwise; Swansea, 411,377 tons of 
coal and 1,398 tons of coke oversea, and 190,612 tons of coal, 53 tons of 
coke, and 51,902 tons of culm coastwise ; Newport, 213,585 tons of coal 
and 22 tons of coke oversea, and 711,225 tons of coal and 2,040 tons of coke 
coastwise; Shields, 56,589 tons of coal and 2,133 tons of coke oversea, and 
23,746 tons of coal coastwise; Blyth, 147,440 tons of coal oversea, and 
133,065 tons of coal coastwise; Seaham, 60,837 tons of coal oversea, and 
620,465 tons of coal coastwise ; Middlesborough, 106,506 tons of coal and 
37,159 tons of coke oversea, and 198,958 tons of coal and 3,082 tons of coke 
coastwise; Hull, 129,849 tons of coal and 422 tons of coke oversea, and 
10,262 tons of coal coastwise; Llanelly, 106,376 tons of coal and 4,797 tons 
of coke oversea, and 262,201 tons of coal and 11,922 tons of culm coast- 
wise; Glasgow, 81,171 tons of coal and 1,542 tons of coke oversea; Port 
Glasgow, 16,852 tons of coal oversea; Greenock, 65,245 tons of coal and 
899 tons of coke oversea; Grangemouth, 71,045 tons of coal and 377 tons 
of coke oversea; Alioa, 58,635 tons of coal and 37 tons of coke oversea, and 
9,334 tons of coal coastwise; Whitehaven, 2,498 tons of coal oversea, and 
182,146 tons of coal and 1,203 tons of culm coastwise; Maryport, 374,801 
tons of coal and coke coastwise; St. David’s, 55,898 tons of coal oversea, 
and 5,166 tons of coal coastwise; Ardrossan, 35,800 tons of coal oversea, 
and 79,906 tons of coal coastwise ; Charlestown, 60,305 tons of coal over- 
sea, and 53,632 tons of coal coastwise; Inverkeithing, 24,499 tons of coal 
oversea, and 8,295 tons of coal coastwise ; and Borrowstonness, 28,645 ton- 
of coal and 234 tons of coke oversea, and 53,476 tons of coal coastwise. 

TurtLe Remains In THE Upper Greensanp.—The phosphatic nodules 
of the Upper Greensand of Cambridge are well known to geologists from 
their extensive commercial use in the manufacture of super-phosphate of 
lime for agricultural purposes. The nodules have been secreted in or 
around various organic remains, many of which, such as the bones, were 
often, probably, broken up before the concretion of the phosphatic matter 

VOL. V, L 


7A: THE GEOLOGIST. 


around them, and both they, and the nodules subsequently, have appa- 
rently been not uncommonly subjected to a considerable amount of rollmg 
and degradation. Numerous kinds of shells are common in these nodules, 
as are bones of pterodactyles and other reptiles. Our attention has lately. 
been drawn to very numerous fragmentary remains of turtles, consisting 
chiefly of the crania and lower jaws, with numerous fragments of the cara- 
pace, ribs, and many vertebre. The predominance of the skulls and lower 
jaws in the collection we refer to, which was made by Mr. Farren, of Cam- 
bridge, and has just been purchased by Mr. Gregory, is probably the mere 
accidental result of the collecting of what might be deemed saleable speci- 
mens, or that these portions being the most readily recognized, attracted 
attention, while the other fragments of the limbs and body, more ob- 
scure in their aspect, were left in nodule-heaps. Professor Owen has made 
out distinctly, not less than four species, namely,—Chelone sulcimentum, 
C. altimentum, C. uncimentum. and C. depressimentum. But the point to 
which we want to draw attention is, the district and the land-shores on which 
these turtles lived. The Upper Greensand is a marine deposit, and the 
beds at Cambridge seem closely allied to the grey chalk, especially as that 
member of the cretaceous group appears developed in Kent and Sussex, 
and therefore should have been formed under some considerable depth of 
water. 

Now all the Chelonie are of littoral habits, and as these greensand- 
nodules, like the phosphate-nodules from the Gault and Lower Greensand, 
and all the other deposits from which we have seen them, frequently have 
oyster and other shells attached to them, it would seem that they had been 
brought to a hardened state before they were imbedded in the strata where 
we now find them. We ought therefore to look to some of the older for- 
mations as the land whose coasts they inhabited. 

The turtles of the Wealden have never been properly collected, and it 
is with a view to inducing some one to take up the search for them and 
their comparison with these Upper Greensand fragments, that we have pub- 
lished this note; for to the Wealden lands @ priori, it is that we should be 
inclined to turn for the shores on which these ancient turtles lived, and 
from which their concreted remains were probably washed down by the 
tides and currents into the lower depths of the Wealden sea, where some 
portions of the Upper Greensand were contemporaneously bemg deposited. 

Fosstn FratHer.—From the lithographic stone of Solenhofen, in Bava- 
ria, Hermann von Meyer has obtained a fossil impression of a feather, on 
the two opposite surfaces of a split slab. This he cannot distinguish from 
the feather of a bird. This interesting relic will be described and figured 
in the ‘‘ Palezeontographica.” . 

Devonian Fosstits.—Frrata. In the title. for Geological read Geo- 
graphical. Page 19, line 14, for Devonshire read Devonian. Page 20, 
line 14, for era read area. Page 20, line 5 from bottom, for Table IV. 
read Table V.—W. PENGELLY. 


FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 


Professor Schroetter communicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences 
of Vienna, on the 17th October, that a litha-mica, containing more than 
three per cent. of rubidium, cesium, and lithium, has been lately found in 
Saxony, and that samples of it had been sent to Professor Bunsen, at Hei- 


FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 75 


delberg. Mr. Seybel, the owner of an extensive chemical manufactory at 
liesing, near Vienna, has lately procured a large quantity of lepidolite 
from Rozena, Moravia, and of lithium-mica from the Zimwald, Bohemia, 
for the preparation of the three metals above-mentioned. From the re- 
sults of Professor Peters’ recent examination of the miocene strata of 
Hidas, in southern Hungary, and from the observations made by M. Hant- 
ken on the foraminiferal strata in the Cerithian limestone series, near 
Buda-Pesth, there appear additional proofs of the existence, in Hungary, 
of marine deposits containing a fauna analogous to that of the Cerithian 
strata in the older marine deposits of the Vienna basin.* 

Dr. Lorenz has given the following information regarding the Gulf of 
Quarnero :*—“ This gulf, situated at the north-east end of the Adriatic, 
between the Illyrian and Hungarian shores, a square degree in extent, re- 
ceives uniformly cold freshwater currents, which impart to the waters of 
the gulf a temperature below the average of that of the Adriatic. The at- 
mospherie currents affecting 16 are either regular or casual; among the 
latter the ‘ Bora,’ coming from the north, after having passed over the 
south Alpine ranges, isremarkable for its impetuosity and low temperature. 
The difference between high and low water, as observed during five succes- 
sive years along the whole coast from Quarnero to Lesina, does not exceed 
a foot and a half. ‘The tide rises only once in twenty-four hours, loses two 
days every month, and does not seem to be more influenced by lunar 
phases than by winds or other transient causes. The drift-currents depend 
chiefly on the atmospheric pressure and currents obtaining within the nar- 
row channels separating the islets from each other; and, by taking into 
account the existing meteorological condition, they may be easily known 
and foreseen; a great advantage to the vessels navigating this small archi- 
pelago. 

“The vegetable organisms in the Quarnero are distributed among one 
super-littoral and four marine zones, having their maxima at the respective 
depths of 3, 8, 20, and 45 fathoms. The higher these zones the more they 
number new forms and bear a characteristic type. The Diatomacee, ana- 
logous in this respect to the animal organisms, follow a different rule of 
distribution, their new forms becoming more numerous with increasing 
depth. The habitats of nearly 600 species of Alge (among which are above 
300 Diatomacee) have been ascertained. 

“The 700 animal species (Infusoria excepted) which have been observed 
in the Quarnero (the greatest depth of which is not above 50 or 60 fathoms) 
differ in their distribution from the vegetables; the maxima of their sub- 
marine zones having the depths of 4, 4, 15, 30, and 50 fathoms. 

“‘The organic character of the Adriatic shores is different from the fa- 
cies of other less cireumscribed seas, chiefly in consequence of its anomalous 
tides ; a circumstance to be specially considered if ever artificial oyster- 
breeding should be intended, such as already exists on the Atlantic coasts 
of France under quite different physical conditions.* 

‘*A small colony of ‘ Boreal’ forms, characterized by the presence of 
Nephrops Norvegicus, has taken possession of the depths wherever springs 
of cold freshwater, rising from the bed of the Gulf, have afforded them fa- 
vourable conditions of existence. If compared witn other marine faune, 
the fauna of the Quarnero shows notable differences only in its higher 
zones. At 30 fathoms depth it is nearly identical with the Baltic fauna of 
the same zone; and at 50 fathoms the faune of all European seas may be 
regarded as being quite uniform in character.” 

* Proceed. Vienna Imp. Acad., Oct. 10,1861. Proceed. Imp. Acad. Sciences, Vienn>, 
Nov. 7 and 14, 1861. See the ‘ Moniteur,’ 1861, No. 97. (Communicated by Count 
Marschall.) 


76 THE GEOLOGIST. 


REVIEWS. 


The Alps; or, Sketches of Life and Nature in the Mountains. By H. 
Berlepsch. Translated by the Rev. Leslie Stephen, M.A. London: 
Longman and Co., 1861. 


A charmingly written and entertaining book ought a book about the 
Alps to be; and so is M. Berlepsch’s ‘Sketches of Life and Nature in 
the Mountains.’ 

The Alps are amongst the sublimest results of terrestrial physical power, 
and there are but few men who know them in their real and full majesty. 
That unveils itself least of all where the broad military roads stretch over 
passes and anticlinal ‘‘ saddles,” or where the scenes of daily life are busy 
at the footstool of the giant mountain edifice, that towers to the skies 
above. You must, as M. Berlepsch says you must, penetrate into the 
secrets of the hidden world of mountains, into the solitude of closed gorges 
and valleys, where man’s power of cultivation sinks powerless as he ccom- 
prehends the weakness of his efforts against the majesty of Nature in the 
Alps. ‘ You must climb above the ruins of a primeval world, and press 
through labyrinths of glacier and wastes of ice into the temple sanctuary, 
where it strikes up freely and boldly into the sky before your wearied 
eyes. Then you will encounter the indescribable splendour of the Alpine 
world in all its vastness, till you are ready to sink under the thought of 
its awfulness; and when you have recovered from your first impression, 
when in sight of the gigantic masses, you have opened your heart, and pre- 
pared it to receive still nobler revelations, then question boldly those 
mausoleums of immemorial time: ask them what hand raised them from 
the depths of eternal darkness into the kingdom of hight; consult the 
rocky leaves of this stone-chronicle, for the history of their creation and 
the end of their existence. The vast dead masses will become alive for 
you, and a view will open for you into the endless cycle of eternity.” With 
the eye and understanding of a geologist look upon those enormous rock- 
masses. See the strata upheaved and contorted, bearing the relics of pri- 
meval seas, buried in the fine dust of earth, and the ground-down waste 
of former Jands; and ponder on the hundreds of thousands of years that 
those old silts and muds lay beneath the waters of the cold transparent sea. 

‘Who could have witnessed those convulsions and outbursts, when in 
the central Alps, the very inmost kernel of the gigantic mountain fabric, 
the granite, gneiss, and crystalline schists were forced up from the depths 
of the earth’s crust, pierced by the sharp masses of the hornblende rocks, 
and spread out like a fan? How powerless would be the wildest natu- 
ral convulsions we know, how insignificant the earthquakes, storms, vol- 
canos, and landslips of the present time, by the side of that catastrophe, 
when the Alps took their present shape! Our understanding has abso- 
lutely no standing-point from whence to form a conception, even: faintly 
answering to those moments when a world was shattered... . Those 
majestically aspiring masses which run free and bold into the clouds, like 
gigantic obelisk spikes, as the lone and imaccessible Matterhorn, 17,405 
feet in height, the dazzling snow pyramid of the Dent Blanche, 14,322 
feet, or the nine-pointed diadem of the Monte Rosa, 15,217 feet, which 
never can have been protruded through the earth’s crust in their present 
shape, and can be nothing but isolated ruins of the primeval mountain 
fabric. What fearful ages of destruction must there have been, to allow 
the intervening masses now vanished, to be torn away, and to sink, pro- 
bably, into the depths whence they rose? Fora number of proofs show 


REVIEWS. Wik. 


that no influence of weather on these towers of rock can ever have so 
modelled and gnawed them down... . 

‘Most of what is called granite in the central Alps is granitic gneiss, 
called in the people’s language ‘Gaisberger,’ because the highest; moun- 
tains climbed by the goats (G'aisen) are formed of it. It is the substance 
from which the atmospheric influences carve those strange towers of rock 
and picturesque ornaments, which in Chamouny are significantly called 
Aiguilles, from their sharp points. From this so-called ‘primeval mate- 
terial’ are formed the wondrous spikes of stone which ornament the sum- 
mits of different mountains, or strike up here and there hke outposts 
through the far-stretching wastes of névé. We should see many more of 
these slender rock ‘needles’ if many of them were not engulfed in the 
perpetual snow. Here the Achilles-heel of the apparently indestructible 
‘urgestein’ betrays itself. Gmeiss is, as already stated, of stratified 
tabular structure. In the elevation of the Alps, the strata of gneiss were 
raised, and often placed vertically on the edges of the fracture, as the im- 
mediate envelope of the granite. The mass must have been of various 
hardness at different places. At any rate, whilst particular parts have 
withstood the action of the weather without injury, others have been over- 
thrown, gnawed into, and destroyed by the atmosphere to such an extent 
as quite to have disappeared, and left only isolated points behind. Ex- 
amples on a large scale are the Aiguille Verte, the Aiguille du Moine, the 
strangely shattered Aiguilles de Charmoz, the Aiguilles Rouges, all the 
mountains on both sides of the Valley of Chamouny; the Schreckhorner, 
and Grindelwald Viescherhorner in the Bernese Alps, the whole southern 
wall of the Bergell in the Grisons, etc., ete. 

“ But a different kind of atmospheric action attracts our attention in the 
Alps, and that in the most singular manner, and in places where the ex- 
planation is not at once obvious. This appears in the so-called ‘ Devil’s 
Mills’ or ‘Seas of Rock’ on the highest points of many isolated moun- 
tains. The Sidelhorn, close to the Grimsel, is one of the most visited 
points of view in the Bernese Alps. Itis easily reached from the Hospice 
in two or two and a half hours. The nearer one approaches to the sum- 
mit, the more do the vast rock ruins accumulate, piled wondrously over 
each other, till at length the highest point is covered with a perfect chaos 
of such loosely massed granitic blocks of gneiss. At times a certain dis- 
turbed stratification may be observed, something like plates laid upon 
each other ; then again, in other places, a tolerably regular step-like forma- 
tion, but in general they lie without recognizable order. This phenomenon, 
which frequently occurs on summits, is the result of a weathering of the 
granite, but of that kind in which more or less the scaly structure was 
onee predominant. The brothers Schlagintweit represent in their atlas* 
such disorganized scales of gneiss. As the fanciful Jean Paul employs 
the beautiful picture ‘ graves are the mountain-tops of a far new world,’ 
here in reality the mountain tops are graves of a past world. The grandest 
and most imposing masses of granitic rock are only to be found in the 
central Alps. There they often tower in such fearful sublimity, like ver- 
tical walls of rock palaces above the deep valley-hollows, that one is 
startled at their greatness. He who has never seen the dusky pyramid 
of the Hinster Aarhorn from the ‘Abschwung’ on the Aar Glacier, as it 
rises in naked sublimity from the snow-beds to the clouds; he who has 
not journeyed round the south-east of Mont Blanc, and seen its central mass 
from the Cramont or the giant rocky brows of the Grand Cornier, Dent 
Blanche, and Weisshorn, from the depths of the Einfischthal, will hardly 


* To the ‘ Neue Untersuchungen tiber die Physicalische Geographie und Geologie der 
Alpen.’ 


78 THE GEOLOGIST. 


be able to construct for his imagination a right measure of their colossal 
relations ; and yet all these granite giants are far exceeded as to the i1m- 
pression which they make upon the eye by that steep abyss unto which 
the Monte Rosa sinks at the head of the valley of Macugnaga. It 1s 
the greatest vertical magnitude of the European continent. The limestone 
Alps, the Diablerets, Dolden and Gespaltenhorn, and Blumlis Alps, show 
mighty rock-fronts, but they shrink in presence of these granite walls to 
masses of the second order. 

“We called granite the historic stone of the earth. It is so in the Alps 
in more than one respect. Its solemn rock-walls were often memorials of 
great deeds, which may be compared to the sublimest moments of classical 
antiquity. The undaunted Russian Suwaroff, a modern Epaminondas, 
who would rather have been buried in the clefts of the rocks than have 
given up his post, when his columns had repulsed the French under Gau- 
din in the narrow valley of Tremolu, left the heroic words ‘ Suwarow 
Victor’ carved on the granite wall for an everlasting remembrance. Next 
day the cliffs of gneiss were witnesses of equally heroic deeds, where 
the Devil’s Bridge spans the stormy waters of the Reuss with its bold 
arch. Over the granitic deserts of the St. Bernard, Bonaparte led his 
army to the victory of Marengo, in May, 1800; and when the Simplon 
Pass, the first great Alpine road, had been pierced by his orders, he had 
carved in the opening of the gallery of Gondo the words ‘ Aere Italo, 
mpceccv., Nap. Imp.’ Andreas Hofer, the host of Passeyr, was born in 
the granite country, and between granite rocks he fought his glorious 
fights for the freedom of the Tyrol. . . . Benedict Fontana breathed out 
his hero-soul upon the gneiss crystals of the Malser-haide. . . . And then 
the mighty December fight of 1478, in the Livinenthal, when a handful 
of herdsmen destroyed ten times their number of Milanese under Count 
Borelli, till the snows of Bellinzona were red with their blood. Then the 
hero-graves of the three thousand Confederates at Arbeno, who sank in a 
despairing fight before twenty-four thousand Lombards in 1422. The 
double blood-baptism of the Valaisans at Ulrichen and on the Grimsel in 
1422, and many other proofs of manly courage and bold deeds—are they 
not remembrances which have carved their memorial in letters of flame for 
men’s hearts on the rock-tablets of these granite colossi? 

“But the dull stone tells us of still more, of times lying further back, 
of an epoch when the Alps stood as they stand to-day, but when the 
human race was not. These memorial stones are the ‘erratic blocks.’” 

The quotations we have given will show the eloquent turn of the author’s 
mind ; but from them it will be readily seen that while admitting that we 
like the boldness of his speculations, and admire the truthfulness of some 
of his remarks, we cannot always assure the soundness of his geological 
statements. 

Erratic blocks, the Nagelfiuh, landslips, ban-forests, the Wettertanne, 
prostrate firs, and Alpine roses, chestnut-woods, cloud pictures, water- 
falls and mountain snow-storms, avalanches, glaciers and Alpine summits, 
mountain passes and Alpine roads, hospices, chalet-life, the goat-boy, the 
wieldheuer, the Alpine feast, timber-fellers and floaters, mountaineers and 
village-life in the Alps, all form topics equally delightful, treated in lan- 
guage as fanciful or as wild as the subjects themselves, and containing 
a great amount of facts and observations, to be read with interest by 
geologists. To the general reader this must prove a charming book; 


but dealing as we do with a speciality, we can nevertheless recommend. 


it to the votaries of our science as an admirable description of Alpine 
scenery and conditions, from the perusal of which they will rise with 
new thoughts and ideas for deep reflection. 


——— 


‘= —_—~ = 


REVIEWS. 79 


Monographie des Gastéropodes et des Céphalopodes de la Craie supérieure 
du Limbourg. By M. J. Binkhorst. 


Twelve years ago M. Binkhorst took up the study of the superposition 
of the cretaceous beds of Limbourg, and of the special fauna which each 
contained. His first essay, ‘ Esquisse Géologique et Paléontologique des 
Couches erétacées du Limbourg et plus spécialement de la Craie tuffeau,’ 
was published in 1859, and the subject was further completed by a com- 
munication to the Geological Society of France, in the November of that 
year. In his first researches he felt surprise, as many of us collectors have 
done in England, at the few species of Gasteropods compared with the re- 
presentatives of other classes of marine animals. But he soon began to 
account for this seeming paucity. He knew that the few species cited 
were found in the friable beds worked.in the quarries, and that others 
were found in the state of casts and moulds in the hard strata which 
traverse the Upper Chalk in the environs of Maestricht and Heerlen. 
Occupying himself then with assiduous researches for many years in these 
beds, he offers now in this Monograph of the Gasteropods of the Upper 
Chalk, no less than a hundred and six species belonging to thirty-eight 
genera. The species described in this excellent memoir, which is illustrated 
by six large and beautiful plates, containing 270 figures, are :— Rostellaria 
papilionacea, var., Goldf.; Rostellaria nuda, n.s.; Triton Koninckii,n.s. ; 
Cancellaria obtusa, n.s.; Pyrula ambigua, n.s.; P. filamentosa, 0.8. ; 
P. tuberculosa, n.s.; P. planissima, n.s.; P. fusiformis, n.s.; Fusus 
Noeggerathi, n.s.; Fusus glaberrimus, Mull.; Buccinum supracretaceum, 
n.s.; Voluta deperdita, Goldf.; Voluta corrugata, n.s.; V. Debeyii, n.s. ; 
Imbricaria Limburgensis, n.s.; Cyprea Deshayesii, n.s.; Natica patens, 
n.s.; WV. ampla,n.s.; N. Royana, D’Orb.; N. fasciata, Goldf.; NV. cre- 
tacea, Goldf.; N. spissilabrum, n.s.; Chemnitzia clathrata, n.s.; Ceri- 
thium tubercuiatum, n.s.; C. tectiforme,n.s.; C.alternatum, n.s.; C. pli- 
ciferum, n.s.; C. maximum, u.s.; Nerinea ultima, n.s.; Aporrhais Lim- 
burgensis,n.s.; Turritella quinquecincta, Goldf.; 7. plana, n.s.; 7. Oma- 
liusit, Mull.; T.? sinistra, n.s.; T. nitidula, n.s.; T. conferta, n.s.; 
T. Halcoburgensis, n.s.; Vermetus clathratus, n.s.; Scalaria Haidin- 
geri, 0.8.3; Solarium cordatum, n.s.; Xenophora onusta, n.s.; Nerita 
Montis Sancti Petri, n.s.; N. rugosa, Hoeninghaus; N. parvula, u.s.; 
Turbo detritus, n.s.: T. bidentatus, n.s.; 1. Strombeckii, n.s.; T. rimo- 
sus, n.8.; T. granose-cinctus, n.s.; T. clathratus,n.s.; T. rudis, n.s.; 
T. filogranus, n.s.; T. cariniferus, n.s.; Trochus Goldfussii, n.s.; T. 
Montis Sancti Petri, n.s.; T. lineatus,n.s.; T. sculptus.n.s.; Infundi- 
bulum Ciplyanum, De Ryckholt; Delphinula spinulosa, n.s.; Emargi- 
nula fissuroides, Bosquet; EH. Muelleriana, Bosq.; E. supracretacea, 
De Ryck.; H. conica, n.s.; H. Dewalcquii, n.s.; E. radiata, n.s.; E. 
Heventi, n.s.; EH. depressa.n.s.; EH. clypeata, n.s.; Hipponyx (Capulus) 
Dunkerianus, Bosq.; Patella parmapharoidea, n.s.; Acmea levigata, 
n.s.; Siphonaria antiqua, n.s.; Dentalium Nystii, n.s.; Acteon granu- 
lato-lineatum, n.s.; Avellana gibba, n.s.; Avellana ventricosa, n.s.; Tur- 
binella supracretacea, n.s.; T. plicata,n.s.; Cancellaria? reticulata, n. 8.3 
Pyrula nodifera, n.s.; P. parvula, n.s.; P.? plicata, n.s.; Fusus lem- 
niscatus, 0.8.; Ff. squamosus, n.s.; F. formosus, n.s.; F. oblique-plicatus, 
n.s.; Oliva? prisca,n.s.: Mitra Waelii, n.s.; M. cancellata, Sowerby ; 
Voluta monodonta, n.s.; Volvaria cretacea,n.s.; Natica prelonga, 0.8. ; 
NV. Bronnti, n.s.; Cerithium novem-striatum, n.s.; Turritella Ciplyana, 
n.s.; Solarium Kunredtense, n.s.; Turbo inflexus, n.s.; T. scalari- 
Jormis, n. s.; T. Herklotsii, n. s.; T. granuloso-clathratus, n. s.; T. 


80 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Lekellu, n. 8.; Haleotis ? antiqua, n.s.; Emarginula Kappi, nu. s.; Ae- 
teon cinctus, n.s.; Acteonella, sp. 

All these, it will be seem, are new, except about a dozen described or 
quoted by Goldfuss, Hoeninghaus, Bosquet, and De Ryckholt. 

This fauna M. Binkhorst considers as belonging to the zone between 
high and low water ina littoral region of a subtropical ocean. Many of the 
genera which compose it are common to hot and to temperate seas, such 
as the Buccinum, Turbo, Hmarginula, Scalaria, etc.; but others, such as 
the Voluta, Pyrula, Cancellaria, Solariwm, Vermetus, Turbinella, ete., 
only inhabit the hot seas. The facies of the fauna indicates also, he thinks, 
the proximity of reefs of corals, great quantities of the debris of anthozoa- 
rians so fill many of the beds as almost to form them. It is probably to 
the high temperature of this epoch, he considers, that we owe the great 
species Voluta deperdita, Cerithium maximum, and those brilliant colours 
which many of the bivalves that he has found, have even in their ancient 
burial-place. 

“ Judging,”’ he adds, “‘ from the great number of fragment of casts and 
moulds belonging to species of which the determination and the description 
await the discovery of more perfect examples, those that we have de- 
scribed represent only a small portion of the mollusks of this class which 
were the contemporaries of the Mosasaurus.” 

He has also described a cephalopod, characteristic of the ‘‘marnes sans 
silex de Vaels,” a score of species of cephalopods from the Upper Chalk, 
some of which are new, and among others many of the genus Ammonites, 
probably the last representatives of that important and numerous family, 
and one species of the Acanthoteuthis, D’Orb., which with the Acanthoteu- 
this prisca of Solenhofen are the only fossil species known to M. Bink- 
horst as described up to this time, and this the only one of the cretaceous 
rocks. In England however an Acanthoteuthis (4. antiquus) is recorded 
from the Oxfordian beds of Christian Maiford and from Trowbridge in 
Wiltshire. 

Tt is not a little singular however to find these remains of Gasteropoda 
occurring in the hard beds of the Limbourg district, in the form of casts 
and moulds, exactly as the remains of Gasteropoda do in those hard beds 
of the English white chalk to which Mr. Whitaker has lately given the 
name of Chalk-rock. 

The great number of new species figured by M. Binkhorst should be an 
encouragement to the many British collectors of cretaceous fossils, to search 
well these hard beds for the Gasteropoda, of which in the form of casts they 
do, as we know personally by experience, contain great quantities. 

In the beds of this hard chalk at Dover or Maidstone, a cubic foot of 
rock cannot be broken up without some casts of what appears to be an 
exquisitely sculptured Trochus being found. Dentalia also are common, 
and small (young?) Ammonites. We hope soon therefore to see M. Binck- 
horst’s species matched by English examples, and some new forms added 
to them from our own famous chalk localities. 


PLATE V. 


a a 


THECUS FONTANT. 


RYOPI 


+ 


ures. | 


co 
= 
o 


tet’s Onginal Fi 


) 


Lai 


M. 


(From 


Side view of Jaw. 


Jaw in three pieces (top view). 3. 


) 


‘igs. 1 and 2. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


MARCH 1862. 


FOSSIL MONKEYS. 
By CuHaries Carter Brake, Esq. 


In these days of progress, when the alleged origin of the human 
race from a transmuted gorilla is canvassed as a demonstrable and 
demonstrated theory by many geologists and zoologists, andthe pens 
of various distinguished writers are occupied to prove the absolute 
identity of man’s physiological and psychological nature with that of 
the beasts of the field, 1t behoves the candid student of paleontology 
to inquire what are the fossil members of the Order of Mammalia 
immediately beneath man—the Quadrumana, and whether they are 
such individuals as might fulfil the hypothetical condition of being 
his ancestors, under any of the “deriyative” theories propounded by 
Darwin or Lamarck. 

In venturing upon this field of error, doubt, and confusion, I wish 
dispassicnately to endeavour to divest myself of any adherence to any 


Humerus of Lryopithecus Fontani. (Scale % linear.) 


prevailing doctrine. Imbued strongly with the conviction of the unity 
of type of all animals, and with the probability of their common 
VOL. Y. M 


82 THE GEOLOGIST. 


origin by secondary law, yet I advocate no theory which derives man- 
kind from any known recent or fossil species of animal. Convinced 
of the distinctive peculiarities of the human brain, characters not 
satisfactorily demonstrated in any animal, yet I do not shut my eyes 
to the analogy which sometimes exists between the structures in the 
lowest men and the highest apes. Affirming both man’s psychologi- 
cal supremacy, as “a little lower than the angels,” and his physiolo- 
gical adaptation as the highest of animals, contradicting neither the 
cherished and captivating precepts of Teleology, nor the bold and 
comprehensive generalizations of Morphology, the paleontologist who 
loves truth alone for truth’s sake has most need to join in the prayer 
of Bunsen, 


“Father! as upward I gaze, strengthen my eye and my heart.” 


Geological science, steadily progressing since the time of Cuvier, 
in whose time no species of fossil monkey was known, now discloses 
to us no fewer than thirteen species of Quadrumana, as by the an- 
nexed table :— 


Eocene. | Miocene. | Pliocene. Locality. 


Catarrhini (Old World Monkeys) 


Dryopithecus Fontani ......... = ei = France : Gers. 

Phopithecus antiquus ......... == — France: Gers. 

Mesopithecus Pentelicus ...... = e — Greece: Pikermi. 

Mesopithecus major ............ = as — Greece: Pikermi. 

Semnopithecus magnus ...... a ae = India: Sewalik. 

Semnopithecus sp.............+6. SS a "S India. : 

Semnopithecus monspessulanus| = — = * France : Montpellier. 

Macacus pliocenns............... = == * Engl.: Grays, Essex. 

Hopithecus Colchesteri ......... = — — | Engl.: Kyson, Suffolk. 
Platyrvhini (New World Monkeys) 

Protopithecus Brasiliensis...... — — s Brazil. 

Cebus macrognathus............ = — a Brazil. 

Callithrix primeevus .......,.... — = a Brazil. 

Jacchus grandis........ ......... — — * Brazil. 


It is worthy of remark that no fossil species of Strepsirhine Qua- 
drumana, or Lemurs, has hitherto been discovered ; but when we re- 
fleet on the restricted locality of the modern Lemuride to Madagascar 
and to a few of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, countries where 
the geologist’s hammer has not yet rung, we may reasonably expect 
that the industry of such enterprising travellers as Dr. Sandwith may 
procure for us evidence of fossil Lemurs. The @ priori analogy in 
fuvour of their existence in the tertiary strata rests upon the fact 


BLAKE—FOSSIL MONKEYS. 83 


that they are zoologically inferior to the true monkeys, and conse- 
quently more likely to have existed previously to them. 

The fossil monkeys of the New World are all of one geological 
age, the later phocene. They are, moreover, analogous to the existing 
Platyrrhine monkeys of Brazil, thus proving that the physiological 
division of true monkeys into Catarrhine and Platyrrhine existed so 
long ago as the Pliocene age. We find no Platyrrhine monkeys in 
the Old; no Catarrhine in the New World. The Protopithecus 
Brasiliensis discovered by Dr. Lund in limestone caverns in Brazil, 
offers the nearest analogy to the howler monkeys (A/ycetes) which 
are still found in the same locality. The Sapajou (Cebus macrogna- 
thus), the Sagouin (Callithrix prime@vus), and the little Ouistiti 
(Jacchus grandis), are all Brazilian forms. No Transmutationist will 
assert the probable, or even possible, derivation of American types of 
men from the Platyrrhine monkeys. 

Turning to the Old World, the earliest and one of the most inter- 
esting forms of fossil monkey has been discovered in the Eocene sand, 
at Kyson in Suffolk. It is the Kopithecus Colchesteri of Owen. Its 
nearest living analogue, the A/acacus rhesus, is found on the banks of 
the Ganges. The Macacine form of monkey reappears in the pliocene 
beds at Grays, Essex, again reproducing a Bengal form, the Bonnet 
Chinois monkey (Adacacus Sinicus). The older pliocene or newer 
miocene beds of the Sewalik, or Sub-Himalayan range, produce two 
species of Semnopithecus not generally distinct from those of the pre- 
sent day. <A third Semnopithecus is found in the pliocene sands at 
Montpellier. In the miocene beds of Pikermi, at the foot of Penteli- 
con, in Greece, are to be found the remains of two species of JJeso- 
pithecus, a genus which Professor Wagner considers as intermediate 
between Hylobates and Semnopithecus ; but Professor Owen has 
pointed out that the third lobe of the last molar is as well developed 
in MMesopithecus as in Semnopithecus. 

Hitherto we have only had to deal with tailed monkeys, mostly of 
small dimensions, and not differing much in type from those of the 
present day. Evidence has however been afforded to us of the occur- 
rence of two forms of fossil Gibbons (Pliopithecus and Dryopithecus), 
one of which has been regarded by more than one distinguished natu- 
ralist as approaching nearer to the human type than even the Gorilla. 
The illustrious Sir Charles Lyell has stated “ that in anatomical struc- 
ture, as well as in stature, the Dryopithecus came nearer to man than 
any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known to zoolo- 


§4 THE GEOLOGIST. 


gists.’ Professor Owen’s examination however of the plates figured 
in M. Lartet’s memoir* has led him to a very different conclusion. 

Stress has been laid upon the inferior size of the canine in Dryopi- 
thecus, compared with the Chimpanzees, Gorillas, and Orangs, as in- 
dicating its affinity to man; but the inferior monkeys also often 
exhibit this character, and “it is by no means to be trusted as sig- 
nificant of true affinity, even supposing the sex of the fossil to be 
known as being male.” 

The characters in which Dryopithecus approaches to the lower form 
Hylobates are,—the cylindric form of the humerus; the verticality of 
the forepart of the jaw; the shape of the forepart of the coronoid 
process, slightly convex forwards, causing the angle which it forms 
with the alveolar border to be less open than in Man, the Gorilla, 
and Chimpanzee, and the mode in which the molar teeth are developed. 
Professor Owen sums up by stating,—‘‘ There is no law of correla- 
tion, by which, from the portion of jaw with teeth of the Dryopithecus, 
can be deduced the shape of the nasal bones and orbits, the position 
and plane of the occipital foramen, the presence of mastoid and vaginal 
processes, or any other cranial characters determinative of affinity to 
Man; much less any ground for inferrmg the proportions of the 
upper to the lower limbs, of the humerus to the ulna, of the pollux 
to the manus, or the shape and development of the iliac bones. 
All those characters which do determine the closer resemblance and 
affinity of the genus Troglodytes to Man, and of the genus Hylobates 
to the tailed monkeys, are at present unknown in respect of the 
Dryopithecus.” 

As regards Pliopithecus, no doubts can exist as to its affinity with 
fylobates. 

We have thus amongst the fossil species of Simiade no form suffi- 
ciently allied to Man to have served as his ancestor; no form which 
approaches so near to him as the Gorilla or Chimpanzee. 

The theory which would identify man as the descendant of any of 
these existing species has been often and satisfactorily disproved. 

The analogy of the genesis of the whole human race to the genesis 
of each particular individual is obvious: Knowledge is denied to 
each of us how we came, from what we came, whence we came, 
whither we go. The feeble and obscure light of analogy seems to in- 
dicate an origin analogous to that of all animals—the cell. Through 


* Comptes Rendus Acad. Sciences, Paris, vol. xliii, 
7+ Owen on Gorilla, Proc. Zool. Soe. 1859: 


Pia Vile 


PLIOPITHECUS ANTIQUUS. 


[From M. Lartet’s Original Figures. 


Fig. 1. Top view of Jaw. 2. Side view (nut. size). 3. Side view of Jaw of recent Gorilla. 


(Seale 4 linear.) 


wee. 


BLAKE—FOSSIL MONKEYS. 85 


what ancestry man may have been derived from such primordial form 
he knows not. Suffice it to say that it is neither to Gorilla, to Koo- 
loo Kamba, to Orang, to Dryopithecus, nor to any known recent or 
fossil ape he can claim his descent. 

But the mind of the paleontologist, still aiming at a solution, re- 
calls the hideous ape-like character of the Neanderthal man, and 
strives to divest himself of the idea that this frightful being belonged 
to the same race as himself. Demonstration is lacking of the mode 
by which even so low and degraded a type could have been derived 
from the apes. Whether demonstration will ever afford us such a 
solution is the object towards which Anthropologists, Zoologists, and 
Geologists are directing their best endeavours,—with what success 
remains to be seen. 


GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF Fossin MoNKEYs. 


| Strata. | Europe. Asia. America. Africa. Australia. 


Pleistocene :— 


Historical .| Man | Man and Man Man and | Man 
Orangs. Chimpan- 
Zees. 
Prchistorical.} Man Man? 3 : 
© . 
Pliocene .  .| Macacus | Protopithecus 8 e 
Semnopithecus, Cebus 2 ° 
Callithrix = i 
Jacchus a “@ 
we ° 
ee as 
Miocene . .| Dryopithecus | Semnopithecus ra 3 
Phopithecus S S 
Mezopithecus a 3 
ie a 
Eocene. ._ .| Hopithecus 5 ‘S 
Zi 


When we view the skeleton of man, when we trace the points of 
difference between his form and that of the anthropoid apes, we are 
struck with the “all-pervading”’ unity of plan and “similitude of 
structure,-—every tooth, every bone strictly homologous,’’—which is 
presented by these organs throughout their diversified adaptations. 
We can trace out in both the human jaw and that of the ape the same 
canine tooth: e. g. as the modified representative and homologue of 
the canine in Hyenodon, now subserving its duty in the gorilla as an 
almost carnassial laniary, now dwarfed in man into the semblance 
merely of a more conical incisor. In each bone of the metacarpals 


86 THE GEOLOGIST. 


and metatarsals of Homo is seen a repetition of the same structure in 
Troglodytes. Few but those who have studied the subject with the 
anxiety of the practised observer, can appreciate the pleasure with 
which the morphological student detects in the gorilla skull a struc- 
ture, however trivial, which he has also found in man, even when he 
recognizes such an organ as the styloid process of the temporal in 
man in the angular termination of that “ ridge which extends from 
the ectopterygoid along the inner border of the foramen ovale in the 
Gorilla,’ such “styloid” being absent in the Chimpanzees, Orangs, 
and Gibbons, and probably in the fossil Dryopithecus. In every 
structure that shows on the part of the lower forms of man an ap- 
proach, either in degree or in kind, with a similar structure in the 
higher Quadrumana, the disciple of unity of descent finds a basis for 
his arguments; whilst he who abides, and may be working out, a 
demonstration of the mode of origin of species, accepting the evidence 
of their origin by law, and the maintainer of the faith in special crea- 
tion, gives due weight to, and watches for the distinctions which limit 
the sub-class Archencephala. 


GEOLOGY OF CASTLETON, DERBYSHIRE. 
By Joun Tartor, F.G:S. 


Now that the “season” is fast approaching for field-work, a few 
remarks concerning the geology of the above locality will doubtless 
be acceptable to many of our readers. Such of them who may 
have broken ground on it will remember with pleasure its beautiful 
scenery and the peculiar charms which attract the naturalist to it. 
That it is interesting in more respects than a merely geological one, 
is shown by the botanists who wander there in search of rare and 
beautiful plants, and the antiquarian who finds in its old keep and 
other more ancient relies sub- 
jects for thought. Above all 
“ Moultrassie Hall” and “ Pe- 
veril Castle’? hold an_ho- 
~ noured place in our literature 
" enshrined by the genius of 
e_. = Scott. The flora of the locality 

Wig, 1—The “ Peak” Cavern. 4 18 particularly interesting, oe 
pecially that of the lower class. 
Maidenhair, spleenwort, and rue-leaved spleenwort grow upon almost 
every wall; and the eystopteris in several species is also common, whilst 
the adder’s-tongue and the little moonwort are exceedingly plentiful 


TAYLOR—GEOLOGY OF CASTLETON, DERBYSHIRE. 87 


in the richer pastures. The number of mosses is exceedingly great. 
The beautiful Brywm dendroides and others abound in the moister 
spots of the Cave Dale. In fact, the botanical character of the vege- 
tation hereabout is so peculiar to the three formations which are 
found as to form a geological map to the underlying rocks, coloured 
by nature herself! The limestone clothed with its short and beautiful 
carpet of green; the black shales of the Yoredale rocks covered by 
their stunted and brown vegetation; and the millstone-grit in the 
glowing summer-time quite purple with the flowers of the heather. 
And for land shells no other locality can compete with it. From the 
robust Helix aspersa to the diminutive Pwpa numerous species in- 
tervene; some of them, such as Clausilia and Pupa, being more nu- 
merous in individuals than any other place that I have visited. 

But to the geologist the rocks present treasures of fossils most 
beautifully preserved. I have found the Terebratula hastata retaining 
its purple colour-bands as beautifully as when alive in the carboni- 
ferous seas; and in some places every slab that is turned up is 
matted with Retepora and Fenestrella. Coming here from Manchester, 
along the new road from Chapel-en-le-Frith, the first place where we 
meet with the limestone is about a mile and a half distant from the 
town. This hill, Trecliff, is about six hundred feet in height, and the 
dip of the beds is about 25° in a direction N.N.H. It is in this hill 
that the “ Blue John” mines are situated; and is the only locality 
in the country where this peculiar mineral is met with. It hes in 
“pipe-veins,’ having the same inclination as the rocks which the 
veins traverse. One of these veins lies in a sort of clayey stratum, 
and another seems to be imbedded in the nodule state in a mass 
of indurated débris. Besides these, the whole of the limestone 
masses are fractured and cracked, and, in addition to the pipes, the 
sides of the cavities are lined with the most perfect and beautiful sky- 
blue cubes of fluor, and the rhombic crystals of calcite. I remember 
scarcely anything with greater pleasure then an adventure in search 
of minerals a year or two ago, in one of these caverns, which was 
richly rewarded. Witherite, fluor-spar, varying in colour from trans- 
parency to rose, blue, violet and other colours, selenite, and occa- 
sionally phosphate of lead, are all found in the lead-mines of the neigh- 
bourhood. Some varieties of calespar have the property of double 
refraction, like Iceland spar. 

Nearly all the characteristic fossils of the carboniferous limestone 
abound, as may be seen by glancing at the names of the localities 
given in Professor Phillips’s ‘Geology of Yorkshire.’ The richest 
localities for obtaining them is just below the “Blue John cavern,” and 
in the gorge at the back of the town, which goes by the name of 
the Cave Dale. In geologizing along the side of Trecliff hill, one 
eannot but be struck with the various groups of fossils which the 
different beds present. The lower beds contain great quantities of 
Phillipsia—heads, carapaces, etc., being very frequently met with, and 
occasionally they are found whole. Just as we should have expected 
from knowing that the family of Trilobites died out with the moun- 


88 THE GEOLOGIST. 


tain limestone, as we continue our researches higher up in the beds 
we find their remains becoming more scanty, until at the top they are 
exceedingly rare. One bed is rich in zoophytes, another in goniatites, 
whilst another is composed of the broken fragments of Sanguino- 
laria. and the whole of the beds contain numbers of Spirifer umbricatus, 
which connects them like a huge bracket from top to bottom. Some 
rare geologizing may be had along the lower beds; almost every 
stroke of the hammer lays open something novel. 

The remarkable fissures which occur in the limestone of Derbyshire 
have afforded matter of speculation to the curious for centuries; the 
most remarkable one is called the Winnats, and is about a mile dis- 
tant from Castleton. It gives rise to the most sublime scenery, for 
the fissure is caused by the splitting of a hill in twain, and the steep 
precipices on either hand for the distance of a mile and a half, resem- 
ble the ruins of old towers and buttresses, in some places clad with 
ivy, and tenanted by bats and owls. Another such fissure is at the 
back of the town, and has been already referred to. In some places 
the passage at the bottom of this is not above three yards in width, 
and is much of a character, in other respects, with the Winnats. 
Much speculation has arisen as to the origin of these rents ; they occur 
at nearly right angles to the line of strike, and have doubtless been 
formed in the first instance by the upheaval and desiccation of the 
rocks, thus :— j 


Subsequent to this they have been worn and channelled by at- 
mospheric and aqueous action. They have been attributed to platonic 
agency, but it needs little geological knowledge to see that the above 
theory is the true one. Along the lower beds in the Cave Dale there 
is another good spot or two for the geologist. Here are found 
numbers of trilobites, some quite entire ; groups of the entomostra- 
can Cythere, and that rare fossil the Cyclas radialis. One bed seems 
quite a nest of Pleurorhyncus armatus, although they are very fra- 
gile and require great care to extract them with the cone entire. 
Plutonic action has not been absent in the neighbourhood, for at 
the top of this fissure are beds of greenstone, and an imperfectly 
columnar basalt, whilst the limestone around seems to be somewhat 
crystallized by the heat to which it has been subjected by the in- 
trusion. 

Old Mam Tor, the “Shivering Mountain,’ in geological position 
lies just above the limestone. The shales which compose it are 
speedily decomposed by atmospheric agency, and hence have given 
rise to the popular name which the mountain bears. The inclination 
of its beds is E.N.E., and the intensity of their dip about 40°. These 


BOLLAERT—NEW MASS OF METEORIC IRON. 89 


beds can be traced through Hope on to Hathersege; and along the 
brook side, below Mam Tor, a good section is displayed, where 
they are seen abutting against the lower limestones. Along the 
stream at Hepe good sections are also exposed, and they are seen in 
several places on the road to Bradwell. The bottom beds of the 
shales are intercalated with stony bands composed of the remnants of 
encrinite-stems and fragments of shells, and have been caused by the 
denudation of the limestone during their formation. The bottom 
shales are rich in Aviculo-pectens, Goniatites, Posidonia, etc., and the 
numerous iron-stone bands higher up the hill are rich in small gonia- 
tites, which are frequently found pyritized. 

The most striking peculiarity of these shales is the fact that about 
a couple of miles from Castleton, where they rest upon the limestone, 
the bitumen which has steeped them has also percolated and oozed 
out into the limestone, turning it quite black, as also the fossils 
which, when split apen, are often seen to contain a little globule of 
bitumen. Here we see the decomposed remains of two subdivisions 
separated by a great gulf of time, mingling together, both testifying 
to the great law of death which has prevailed since the dawn of life. 
When the fossils of the limestone are cleft open, they are often seen 
te contain a little globule of bitumen. Do not all the labours of the 
geologist prove that death is as much a natural law as that of birth, 
and that creation has been concomitant with extinction, as with indi- 
viduals has been life and death ? 


NOTES ON A NEW MASS OF METEORIC IRON FROM 
THE CORDILLERA OF COPIAPO, CHILE, 
By Wm. Boxtuaszrt, F.R.G.S., 
Cor. Mem. Univ. Chile and Amer. Ethnological Society, ete. 

This was found by a muleteer, in June, 1858, when passing the 
Cordiliera from Catamarca to Copiapo, and brought by him to the 
latter city. He took it to be a radado, or piece of silver-ore that had 
been broken from a vein and rounded by being washed with stones, 
say in the bed ofa river; but on its being examined by Dr. David 
Garcia (a pupil of Domeyko), at Copiapo, he pronounced it to be a 
mass of meteoric iron. 


Dr. D. Gargia is the BOSS oe 
manager of the “ Tran- EB EE IE See 8 SO" OS 
Bpager { : ST oe = S32 SOGce 


sito”’ maquina or silver 
amalgamating works, 
and has this specimen 
in his possession, Mr. 
Abbott tells me it is 
considered a most inte- 
resting specimen, being 
so perfect (nota broken 
fragment), and whole, * Meteorite from Copiapo. 

VOL. Y. N 


al ag 


VR 


i) 


v0 
0 
Q 
: 
0) 
is rn 
‘ 
Q 
0 
@) 
Oj 
qt 


y Wt 


90 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The mass is covered thickly with a series of shallow pits or depres- 
sions, about 4 to +, of an inch deep. The spaces between the holes 
are bright like steel. Its weight is about 12 or 13 lbs. | 

In consequence of finding a difficulty in fixing the position or po- 
sitions of the Atacama Meteorite in 1826, I gave Peine, Guanaquero, 
Chala, and two other spots north of Challa, all in the desert of Ata- 
cama; also Mifio, to the east of Mani, near the Peruvian and Bolivian 
boundaries. I tried to get across the desert in 1828, from the coast 
of the Pacific, in the hope of examining the localities of Guanaquero 
and Peine, near to one or other of which places I hoped to find the 
meteoric deposit. I was lcst for awhile in the desert of Atacama, 
and had to return to the coast. Near to Toconao, north-east of Peine, 
was supposed by Sir W. Parish to be the spot; but in 1853, Dr. 
Philippi determined Imilac, a few miles south-west of Peine, to be 
the spot, or one of the spots of the fall of the Atacama Meteorite. 

A very large specimen from Atacama is in the possession of Domey- 
ko, in Santiago, in Chile; some others I have seen, as well as many 
small fragments which fell at Imilac; as to my small specimen obtained 
in 1826, when I was in Tarapuca, it may or may not have been col- 
lected at Imilac.* 

The large specimen of the Atacama Meteorite deposited by me in 
the British Museum, I procured on the west coast in 1854. I have 
had some doubts as to whether Imilac ought to be given as the locality 
of its fall. I made this observation in my paper to the Meteorolo- 
gical Society, 1858, as to this specimen; the same will apply to a 
slice of meteoric stone in the same Museum, and that in the Museum 
of Practical Geology. The information I had was what I let the Bri- 
tish Museum have, that it (and others, one weighing over 50|bs.) 
were brought to Cobija by a muleteer, from “ somewhere to the east 
in the desert of Atacama, and it was thought there were several 
similar deposits in the track to Antofogasta.” 

These specimens have the external mechanical character of the 
Imilac specimens, but the metallic part is dark, as if much oxidized, 
and the earthy part is more erystalline. 

_ Nicol, in his ‘Mineralogy,’ gives an analysis by Rivero of meteoric 
iron from “ Potosi :’’—iron, 90:24; nickel, 976 = 100-0. Domeyko 
gives for the Atacama one (Imilac) :—iron, 88°54; nickel, 8°24; co- 
balt, 1-14; silica,0'16. From this difference of composition compared 
with that of the one from “ Potosi,” we may say that Imilac was not 
its place of deposit. | 

_ I advert in my paper to the Meteorological Society to three stones 
found four leagues inland from Playabrava (23° 35'), two round and 
porous, the other porous, flat, and triangular. I suspect them to be 
meteoric (for they are said to be of “iron’’), and the locality they 
were found in. although near the latitude of Imilac, is much further 
to the west. Having disposed of these amygdalo-peridotic varieties, 


» rave 9° 9 sO “ps > eine = = 5 
tR oil 23° 30’ S., 68° 50’ W. as the position of Dr. Reid’s specimens (which are 
rid a a and there may be a doubt that they came from Imilac, which is in 28° 49’ S., 
) . 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 91 


that of Imilae, which may have fallen about 1820, I will now refer to 
Shepard’s account in 1850 of three new North American meteorites, 
with observatious upon the general distribution of such bodies, 
and on the falling of meteorites over a limited zone or area of 
the earth’s surface. He says :—“ Out of the fourteen depositions of 
meteoric matter on the American continent within the last few years, 
thirteen have taken place between 33° and 44° N.; one only at 
Maceio, in Brazil, south of the Equator,—a distribution exceedingly 
unequal.” He however concludes “that there is a zone or region 
over which meteoric falls are more frequent than elsewhere.” 

Run the eye easterly from the meteoric region of Atacama, on the 
west coast of South America, for ten degrees of longitude, and now 
we come upon that extraordinary deposit of solid meteoric iron of 
Otumpa* (about thirteen tons), of which there is so magnificent 
a specimen in the British Museum. Near Bahia, in Brazil, is another 
mass of iron of 14,000 lbs. 

On Arrowsmith’s old map of South America,at a distance of twenty- 
three geographical miles 8.8S.W. of the city of Tucuman, appears 
the word “ Meteores;” does this mean that meteoric iron has been 
found there? Antofogasta is about 2° W.N.W. of the “ Meteores,” 
and I have reason to believe that meteoric iron exists about there. 

In the map to Wilcocke’s ‘ Buenos Ayres,’ at the junction of the 
Bermejo and Paraguay rivers are the “ Montes de Hierro;” monte 
may mean mountain or forest. This locality is about 2° N.H. of 
Otumpa, and the iron spoken of here may be meteoric. 

In the ‘ Coleccion de Memorias Cieutificas, etc., por M. E.de Rivero 
y Ustariz’ (Brussels, 1857), there are details and analyses of several 
masses of meteoric iron found in the Cordillera of the Andes (of 
Bogota). 

My impression is, that when this subject of meteoric zones is 
worked out, more falls will have to be recorded in South America 


than given by Shepard. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


GroLocicaL Socizty oF Lonpon.—January 22, 1862.—Sir R. I. Mur- 
chison, V.P.G.S., in the chair. The following communications were read:— 
1. “On some Flint Arrow-heads (?) from near Baggy Point, North 
Devon.” By N. Whitley, Esq., communicated by J. S: Enys, Esq., F.G.S. 
Immediately beneath the surface-soil above the “raised beaches’ of North 
Devon and Cornwall, the author has observed broken flints; and even 


* It is not known when the Otumpa iron fell. It was visited by Celis and Cervifio 
in 1783. The length of it is 34 yards, 2 yards in width, 4 feet 6 inches deep, and con- 
tains 93 cubic yards. This appears to be independent of smaller pieces. It is called 
by the natives the Masa de fierro, or mass of iron; the meteorite of the Chaco; of the 
Chaco Gualamba. It was discovered by people from Santiago del Estero on one of their 
expeditions to “malear,” or hunt for honey and wax. It is in about 27° 43/S., 2° 40! 
W. of Buenos Ayres. 


92 THE GEOLOGIST. 
at the Scilly Isles such flints are found. At Croyde Bay, about half-way 
between Middle-Borough and Baggy Point, at the mouth of a small 
transverse valley, Mr. Whitley found them in considerable number, col- 
lecting about 200 specimens, of which about 10 per cent. of the splintered, 
flints at this place have more or less of an arrow-head form ; but they pass 
by gradations from what appear to be perfect arrow-heads of human manu- 
facture to such rough splinters as are evidently the result of natural causes. 
Hence the author suggested that great caution should be used in judging 
what flints have been naturally, and what have been artificially shaped. 

2. “On some further Discoveries of Flint Implements in the Gravel 
near Bedford.” By James Wyatt, Esq., F.G.S. Simee Mr. Prestwich 
described the occurrence of flint implements near Bedford (‘ Geological 
Society’s Journal,’ No. 67, p. 366), Mr. Wyatt and others have added 
seven or eight to the list, from the gravel-pits at Cardington, Harrow- 
den, Biddenham, and Kempston. Mr. J. G. Jeffreys, F.G.S., having 
examined Mr. Wyatt's further collections of shells from the gravel- 
pits at Biddenham and Harrowden, has determined seventeen other 
species besides those noticed by Mr. Prestwich, and among these is Hy- 
drobia marginata (from the Biddenham pit), which has not been found 
alive in this country. At Kempston, Mr. Wyatt has examined the sand 
beneath the gravel (which is destitute of shells), and at 3 feet in the sand 
(19 feet from the surface) he found Helix, Succinea, Bithnia, Pupa, Pla- 
norbis, ete., with flint flakes. . 

3. “On a Hyena-den at Wookey-Hoie; near Wells, Somerset.” By 
W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., F.G.S. In a ravine at the village of Wookey- 
Hole, on the southern flanks of the Mendips, and two miles N.W. of 
Wells, the river Axe flows out of the Wookey-Hole Cave by a canal cut 
in the rock. In cutting this passage, ten years ago, a Gave, filled with 
ossiferous loam, was exposed, and about 12 feet of its entrance cut away. 
tn 1859 the author and Mr. Williamson began to explore it by digging 
away the red earth with which the cave was filled, and continued their 
operations in 1860 and 1861. They penetrated 34 feet into the cave, and 
here it bifureates into two branches, one vertical (which was examined as 
far as practical), and one to the right (left for further research). A lateral 
branch on the left, not far from the entrance, was also examined. The 
cave is hollowed out of the Dolomitic Conglomerate, from which have been 
derived the angular and water-worn stones scattered in the ossiferous cave- 
earth. Its greatest height is 9 feet, and the width 36 feet; it is contracted 
in the middle, and narrow towards the bifurcation. Remains of Hyena 
spelea (abundant), Canis Vulpes, C. Lupus, Ursus speleus, Equus (abun- 
dant), Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Rh. leptorhinus (?), Bos primigenius, Me- 
gaceros Hibernicus, C. Bucklandi, C. Guettardi, C. Tarandus (Pye 2C.- 
Dama (?), and Elephas primigentus were met with; remains of Felis 
spelea were found when the cave was first discovered. The following 
evidences of man were found by Messrs. Dawkins and Williamson in the 
red earth of the cave—chipped flints, flint-splinters, a spear-head of flint, 
chipped and shaped pieces of chert, and two bone arrow-heads; and the 
author argues that the conditions of the cave and its infilling prove that 
man was contemporaneous here with the extinct animals in the pre-glacial 
period (of Phillips), and that the eave was filled with its present contents 


pale by the ordinary operations of nature, not by any violent cata- 
Ciysim., 


» /, ” sane fe 5 >) rm x = - 
kebruary 5, 1862.—The following communications were read :— 


; R. On poms \ oleanic Phenomena lately observed at Torre del Greco 
and Aesina.”” By Signor Luigi Palmieri, Director of the Royal Observa: 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 93 


tory on Vesuvius. In letters addressed to H.M.’s Consul at Naples, and 
dated December 17th, 1851, and January 3rd, 1862. 

The author spoke of the evolution of great quantities of carbonic acid 
gas as seemingly coming from a great subterranean reservoir, and as bub- 
bling up in the sea and killing the fish. He also noticed the outbursts of 
springs of acidulous, and hot water; and especially mentioned the upheaval 
of the ground for some miles along the shore at Torre del Greco to the 
height of more than a métre above the sea-level. 

2. ‘On the Recent Eruption of Vesuvius.” By M. Pierre de Tchiha- 
tcheff. M. Tchihatcheff’s observations were made at Torre del Greco and 
Naples from December 8th to 25th. Near Torre del Greco several small 
craters (9-12) have been formed close to each other in an H.N.E.—W.S.W. 
line, at a distance of about 600 métres EH.S.E. of the crater of 1794; and 
either on a prolongation of the old fissure, or on one parallel. The pheno- 
mena mentioned by Signor Palmieri were described by M. Tchihatcheff in 
detail, who also alluded to the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen, and 
suggested this as an explanation of the flames said to have emanated from 
the fissures in the ground at various places. 

3. “On Isodiametrie Lines as means of representing the Distribution of 
Sedimentary (clay and sandy Strata), as distinguished from Calcareous 
Strata, with especial reference to the Carboniferous Rocks of Britain.” By 
EK. Hull, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. _ 

The author exhibited maps of the Carboniferous rocks of England and 
Wales, and by means of coloured isodiametric lines showed the gradual 
thinning-out of the clays and sandstones in one direction,and thatof the lime- 
stones in another. Upon these data he urged that the formation of limestone 
was distinct from the deposition of littoral, or clayey and sandy, deposits. 
The limestones were of organic origin, and formed in the clear deeps of the 
sea, which those essentially rock-forming creatures the foraminifera, corals, 
etc., inhabited, but not necessarily formed in deep seas. Thus the condition 
of the strata beneath us was that of a series of overlapping wedges. The 
feather-edges of the clays and sands being in one direction, and those of the 
limestones in the other—the former thinning out from the shore into the sea, 
the latter proceeding from the bottom of the sea and terminating towards 
the shore. 


Shore. Sea-surface: The Deep. 


[-—-=—= > 
| ———-los 


5 fi f 
3 


Fig. 1.—Primary Section of a Formation. 


Thus where the limestones were thickest, as a general rule the sandstones 
and clays were thinnest ; and vice versd, when there was a great develop- 
ment of clays and sands the limestones were usually thin. 

The author made a comparison of argillaceo-arenaceous with calcareous 
deposits, as to their distribution, both i modern and in ancient seas, and 
objected to calcareous strata being regarded as sediments, in the strict sense 
of the word. Noticing the distribution of sediments, in the Caribbean Sea, 
he referred to the relative distribution of limestones as compared with shales 
and sandstones in the Oolitic formations (comparing those of Yorkshire with 
those of Oxfordshire), in the Permian strata of England, and in the Lower 
Carboniferous strata of Belgium and Westphalia. After some observations 


94 THE GEOLOGIST. 


on the nature of calcareous deposits, and on the contemporaneity of certain 
groups of deposits, dependent on the oscillatory movements of land and 
sea, the author described his plan of showing on maps the relative thick- 
nesses of the two classes of strata under notice, by means of isodiametric 
or isometric lines (properly isopithic, or indicative of equal thickness of the 
strata). 


ee 


San eae 
a7 4S > = > 
Shalz ee Sand yLinestone 
Sandy Liinestore 


Sardstone 


Ay I, ill y a7 


SS Limestone 


Sandy Limestone 


Fig. 2.—Distribution of the Calcareous and Sedimentary Strata of the Great 
Oolite, Oxfordshire. 


Mr. Hull then proceeded to show the application of the isodiametric 
system of lines to the Carboniferous strata of the midland counties and 
north of England; showing that there is a south-easterly attenuation of 
the argillo-arenaceous strata, and a north-westerly attenuation of the cal- 
careous strata. The existence, in the Carboniferous Period, of a barrier 
of land crossing the British area, immediately to the north cf lat. 52°, was 
insisted upon; and, although this barrier was probably broken through (in 
South Warwickshire) in the latter portion of that period, yet it divided, 
in the author’s opinion, the coal-area into a north and a south portion, the 
latter showing a very different set of directions in the attenuation of its 
strata; the shales and sandstones thinning out eastward and the lime- 
stones in the contrary direction. 

In conclusion, the author stated his opinion that the source of the 
Carboniferous sediments was in the ancient North Atlantic Continent, for 
the existence of which Lyell, Godwin-Austen, and others have argued ; 
and he inferred that the shores of this Atlantis, composed principally of 
granitoid or metamorphic rocks, were washed on the west side by a current 
running south-west which drifted the sediment in that direction; and, on 
the other, by a current running south-east which carried sediment over 
the submerged British area. 

Gnoxocists’ Associatron.— February 3.—Professor Tennant, F.G.S., 
President, in the chair. The following papers were read :—1. “On the 
Cretaceous Group in Norfolk.” By C. B. Rose, Esq., F.G.S. The author, in 
an elaborate paper, described the general divisions of the chalk formation 
as exhibited in Norfolk, and following the arrangement proposed by the late 
Mr. Woodward, he divided the beds into Upper Chalk, Medial Chalk, 
Hard Chalk, and Chalk Marl. The Upper and Medial Chalk he stated 
to comprise the chalk with flints (the upper division of other geologists), 
and the author considers this distinetion legitimate, inasmuch as the 
uppermost bed at Norwich contains organic forms which are not met with 
in the medial bed. The distinguishing characteristics of the several 
beds with their peculiar fossils, and the local limits of each formation were 


fully described, and the paper was illustrated by an elaborate section of 
the strata of the county. 

_ 2 | On the Plasticity and Odour of Clay.” By C. Tomlinson, Esq. 
Che author pointed out some of the most remarkable considerations in re- 
lation to this subject, such for instance as the fact that clay is only plastic 
up toa certain temperature ; when heated beyond that point (which the 
author believes, from experiments performed by him, to be somewhere be- 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 95 


tween 600° and 700° Fahr.) it loses its plasticity and acquires the property of 
rigidity. Moreover, having once lost its plasticity, this quality can never be 
restored to it by any methods known to science. Further, this property 
cannot be produced artificially. The constituent elements of pure clay 
may be combined in the proportions indicated by analysis, but the clay 
thus produced is not plastic. Itis commonly stated that it is the alumina 
which confers upon clay its plastic property, but the author showed that 
pure alumina whether gelatinous, or after having been dried and ground up 
with water, never gives a plastic paste; nor can water be the cause, since 
melted glass and sealing-wax both possessed the property. 

The author considered that the phenomenon may be due to a change 
in the molecular arrangement of the particles of the clay, and the conse- 
quent variation of the attractive force which holds them together,—the 
particles, under the circumstances under which clay is plastic, being nearer 
to one another, and the attractive force consequently greater, than under 
the circumstances when the clay has the property of rigidity. 

As to the odour ef clay, the author pointed out some difficulties in the 
way of the common opinion that alumina is the cause of this property, 
and suggested various considerations which might lead to the elucidation of 
this point. 

Liverpoot Grotoeicat Socrety.—January 14.—The papers read 
were ‘‘ On the Connection between Physical Geography and Geology.” By 
F. P. Marrat. ‘On the Geology of the Southern portion of the Isle of 
Man.” By E. B. Franceys. 

February 11.—“ On Surface-markings on the Sandstone near Liverpool, 
supposed to have been caused by ice.” By G. H. Morton, F.G.8. “A 
Brief Outline of the Geology of the country about Clitheroe, Pendle Hill, 
and Bromley.” By G. H. Morton, F.G.S. 

MancuHester Grotoaicat Society.—December 31, 1861.—Mr. Bin- 
ney exhibited a specimen of granite containing petroleum, sent to him by 
James Yates, Esq., of London. ‘The specimen was obtained in 1818, and 
is mentioned in Aiken’s ‘ Mineralogy’ (1815, p. 60), so that its discovery is 
of older date than thirty years ago. 

The papers read were :— 

1. “On the Ventilation of Mines.” By Mr. Joseph Goodwin. The 
author considered that it was not new principles that were required to pre- 
vent the loss of life that is taking place year by year in the working of the 
coal-mines of this country, but attention to the simplest, oldest, and most 
commonplace precautionary measures. Nor were the evils arising from 
explosions the only ones to be guarded against; it was alike a duty to pay 
attention to the sanitary state of the mines and to remove as far as prac- 
ticable all the causes which are life-destroying, or that injure the health of 
the operatives. The phenomena of sudden outbursts of gas, and the velo- 
eity at which air-currents can be practically passed through the workings 
of a mine, were the chief topics of the paper. 

2. ‘On the Self-extinguishing and Detector Safety Lamp for working 
Mines.” By Mr. George Charlton, Mining Engineer. 

January 28th, 1862.—Joseph Dickinson, Esq., F.G.S., President, in the 
chair. The following papers were read :— 

1. “On the Bank Top and Hagside Pits ; and the Proving of Faults.” 
By Andrew Knowles, Esq. The Bank Top Collieries are about one mile 
from the town of Bury. One shaft or pit adjoins the Kast Lancashire sec- 
tion of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and is connected with it 
by a siding; the other is on the bank of the Manchester, Bolton, and 
Bury Canal, To the mine, the former pit is 130 yards deep, the latter 


96 THE GEOLOGIST. 


60. The mine worked is generally supposed to be identical with the 
Rushby Park of St. Helens, the Arley of Wigan, and the Royley of Old- 
ham. The Hagside Pit is 760 yards to the deep of the one that adjoins 
the railway ; being 280 yards in depth to the coal, and 300 to the bottom 
of the sump-hole. There is nothing of particular geological interest in 
connection with the mine, more than is usually met with in coal-mines. 
We find Anthracomye ina layer, about four inches above the coal; and in 
the strata between the ‘“‘two-feet coal” and the main bed, the author 
had seen several good specimens of Sigillaria. These strata vary from 
three feet to seven yardsin thickness. The average thickness of the mine 
worked is four feet six inches. In giving his opmion on the proving of 
faults, the author confined his remarks to the kind commonly met with in 
the Lancashire coal-field. The faults generally met with in this county 
are dislocations, whether they are large or small ones; that is, the strata 
are broken up, and that the coal and other measures are often found the 
same on each side of the fault-vein. Suppose a fault is met with. It is 
easily known whether it is a down- or up-throw ; if the former, the coal 
not unfrequently dipsa little, for a short distance, before you arrive at it; 
if the latter, it oftener rises to it. But supposing you arrive, without any 
previous indication, at a fault, the direction is generally known by the way 
in which the strie, or two sides of the fault-vemm, commonly called the 
“slippy partings,” point. Ifa down fault is met with, the direction is away 
from you; if up, you touch the vein first at the floor of the place where 
you are driving. 

2. “The Ventilation of Mines.” Mr. Joseph Goodwin. As the recent 
catastrophe at the Hartley New Pit has called forth the sympathy of 
almost every subject within the British realms, and appears at the present 
time to be exciting the minds of all engaged in the trade, the author thought 
it was not out of place to consider how far it is safe to trust to a bratticed 
shaft for ventilating coal-mines. The system of working a colliery with 
only one shaft presents an unfavourable aspect, viewed from whatever 
point it may be; but probably the system is more at fault, in so far as it 
aflects the ventilation of a colliery worked upon this principle, and the 
risk to which it exposes both employer and employed, than if viewed from 
any other point. The author denounced this system through a thorough 
conviction that it not only immeasurably increases the risk to both employer 
and employed, but that, pecuniarily considered, no real advantage occurs 
from it of working a colliery. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


Toe Waatrs or tHE Antwerp Crac were made by M. Van Beneden 
the subject of his most interesting address at the last public sitting of the 
Belgian Academy, in which he gave a sketch of the important paleontological 
discoveries made during the recent excavations in the fortifications of Ant- 
Wwerp, and illustrated the subject by éhe interesting information he had ac- 
quired in a recent travel in Germany for the purpose of elucidating the 
re of the zp rbhs fossil cetaceans that have been found in the soil of 

ie environs of Antwerp. ‘awing °] i 
Musée Bourbon of Raskin in Ole cael a e oa eat ae 

rbon aples in asures quities from Herculaneum 
and Pompeii, with the fossil treasures of Antwerp, he proceeded to narrate 
the geological history of that district. “At the very place,” he said, “ where 
to-day roar lions, tigers, and bears in cages barred with iron, in times of 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 97 


yore legions of dolphins and whales were ‘ blowing’ freely, ploughing - the 
surface of the sea with their broad tails, and quietly sporting without fear 
of man. These fossil remains are of a much higher antiquity than all the 
products of hnman mdustry. Man had not yet made his appearance at 
the period when the sea covered these latitudes ; the earth was then 

neither sufficiently prepared nor sufficiently solidly established to receive 
the ‘king of creation.” Between the present epoch and that time past 
when the soil which now bears the wonders of the city of Rubexs reposed 
at the bottom of the sea, we find numerous and incontrovertible vestiges 
of an intermediate period when many great terrestrial mammifers held 
their sway. 

“From the depths of Siberia to the basin of the Mediterranean and the 
Black Sea, two great pachyderms, the Mammoth and tichorine Rhino- 
ceros, trod in great numbers the shallow waters and plains,* at the same 
time that the great bears so carefully described by Dr. Schmerling (in 
1833) frequented the sombre caverns of Liége. The nearly bugs 'ske- 
leton disinterred two years since at Lierre : amongst bones of rhinoceros, 
ox, deer, horse. and hyzena, belongs to this intermediate period.t - 

The North Sea had not then its present limits ; England had not yet. per- 
haps, been subjected to that terrible convulsion which violently s eparated 
it from the Continent ; and judging from the considerable number of bones 
which are met with in certain places in the present seas, these great pachy- 
derms traversed freely and dry-foot from the Meuse and the Scheldt to 
the Thames and the county of Essex. . . . As I propose to speak of the 
fossil hones collected from the sand, otherwise called the § Crag,’ of the 
environs of Antwerp, and which forms a real catacomb of dolphins and 
whales, permit me to draw attention to the species which now visit our 
coasts, in order the better to judge of the differences which are revealed 
by a comparison between the present North Sea and the Sea of the Crag at 
that geological epoch. Who is there that. during the fine days of summer, 
reclining on the sand of the dunes or at the foot of the cliff, abandoned to 
his reveries, has not been struck with that majestic nature which, under a 
thousand different forms, spreads waves of life on the sea! Who has not 
asked himself,—This shore of to-day, is it like the shores of other day P 
These waters, have they always enclosed in their bosom the same fishes ? 
What mean these petrified bones, these tusks of mammoths which the sea 
throws up sometimes along the coast? As the archeologist, arrested by 
the majestic ruins of Thebes or Palmyra, delights in evoking the remem- 
brance of their peoples, and figuring to himself the forum and the temple 
filled with the dense crowd, so the naturalist sees the ancient seas roil their 
foaming waves on the dry land, the waters peopled with dolphins and 
sirens, “star-fish and ‘ear-shells.’ . . . All the species, cetacean or fish, 
mollusc or polype, buried in those vast t beds of sand, have disappear “ed from 
our seas, and even their analogues inhabit only much more southern regions, 

“The mise en scene is the same as of old: flood and ebb produce the 
same effects ; the surf causes the same ravages, —in a word, the ‘decorations 
remain, but ie actors are changed, 

“The phenomena most apparent to the naturalist in comparing the pre- 


* Oflate the study of the species of the quaternary epoch in respect to their appearances 
and succession has made great progress. A remarkable memoir by M. Lartet has ap- 
peared on this important subject, and according to this learned paleontologist the cave- 
bears had disappeared before the appearance of the mammoths, and man was contemporary 
a these species. (See Ann. des Sc. Nat., 4me Série, t. xv., cah, iii.) 

+ Scohy, ‘ Considérations sur les Ossements Fossiles découverts a Lierre,’ 1860; and 
. Bulletins de Académie Royale de Belgique,’ 2me Série, t. ix., No. 4. 
VOL. VY. O 


98 THE GEOLOGIST, 


sent sea with that of the Crag,is the rarity of certain species in modern 
times and their extreme abundance in times past. It is only at long in- 
tervals that we see now on our shores some stray dolphin or a whale that 
has wandered out of its way. The cetacean that we see stranded in our 
latitudes is generally an isolated individual, which its troop have rejected 
or the tempests have separated from its associates. It was not so when, 
in other times, the numerous species of the Crag sea lived; many of those 
great cetacea had there their regular stations, while others made periodic 
visitations. In respect to their abundance and regular migrations, one 
discovers even since the historic period very considerable changes, to which 
the rapacity of man perhaps has not been foreign.™ 

“Tt is known that in the ninth century the Basques . . . harpooned 
the whale in the Gulf of Gascony, and pursued it even as far as the North 
Sea. Different charters prove that associations of whale-fishers, known 
under the name of Societas or Communio Walmannorum, existed in the 11th 
century on the coast of France.t ‘These fisheries were so successful in the 
Channel, that mention is made in these charters of the sale of the fresh 
flesh. Nowadays it is truly an event if by chance one of these great ceta- 
ceans presents itself in these latitudes. Cuvier, struck with this difference, 
thought that the whales had fled before man, and that these animals no 
longer found safety except amongst the reefs of polar ice. 

“This explanation of the great naturalist, although generally accepted, 
does not, however, accord with facts. The whale of the Channel is not the 
same as the whale of the Polar circle. It is not without reason that for a 
long time my friend Eschricht has opposed the hypothesis of Cuvier; and 
the former, the learned professor of Copenhagen, has shown that the Ice- 
landers knew perfectly, as far back as the twelfth century, these giants of 
the Channel from those of the North. In a manuscript of that distant pe- 
riod,§ the Iceland fishermen specified the characteristic differences of the 
two species.|| . . If the whale pursued by the Basques is not the Baleine 
Jranche of the North—the Mysticetus—what is it then? Has it ever 


* Amongst the migrations which have interested us, we could cite two species which 
visit regularly the Feroe Isles since the most remote period, and still make their periodic 
visitation, According to a legend of the country, a pagan giant, vanquished by a Chris- 
tian, promised him for ransom and pardon to send him every year a bird and a whale 
which should be found nowhere else, ‘The bird is the white crow, the whale the dogling 
or hyperoodon,—Kschricht, Comptes Rendus, t. xlvii.; July, 1858. 

+ Cuvier makes mention of these charters, which were communicated to him by the 
Abbé de la Rue. (See ‘ Ossements Fossiles,’ 4me edit., t. 5, lre partie, p. 74:.) 

{ The illustrious savant could not speak with exact knowledge of the Mystzcetus, 
or of the Northern whale, because he had never seen a specimen. At the present time 
even there is not a skeleton of this curious animal either at Paris or in London. There 
is known one example at Copenhagen, and a second has since been acquired by the 
Royal Museum at Brussels. ‘The other chief portions of this whale known are, a fine 
adult skull at Kiel, another head at London, and the head of a young animal at Leyden. 

§ “ Kong-Skug-Sio, Det Konglige Speil, den Konigligen Spiegel,’ or * Royal Mirror,’ 
an leelandie manuscript of the twelfth century.—B. (See also M. Reinhardt on the 
en: whales, “Om Nordhvalen’ (Balena mysticetus, L.), in 4to, Kidbenhavn, 

861, 

* The Icelanders distinguish the two species of whale as that of the North (North 
Whale) and that of the South. The last bears on its skin white calcareous crowns, 
which the other never does. These white crowns are cirrhipedes, which develop and 
propagate themselves on the back of that marine monster. . . . Each species of 
Whale has its peculiar cirrhipedes. Some have the Coronula; others the Diadema ; 


are a aaein the Zudsiecnella,—the last bury themselves several inches deep into the 
skin and the fat, 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 99 


been seen by any naturalist? Is it the Southern whale in which the 
Duich whalers have thought they have recognized their ‘ North-Caper’ ? 
Has it disappeared since this fishery was established, like so many other 
kinds which have been annihilated within historic times?* There is 
need of facts to dissipate these doubts; the best arguments do not suf- 
fice. But can one ever hope to find them for these delicate and dif- 
ficult questions? In these uncertainties, zoologists, not knowing whe- 
ther to think Cuvier right or the Iceland fishermen, were in great com- 
motion some years since in respect to an event which happened in the 
Gulf of Gascony. ‘This was in January, 1854. It is at this period of 
the year that the ancient whales arrive there regularly to take their 
winter station. A mother-whale, accompanied by its cub, made its appear- 
ance at St. Sebastian one day in January, and fortunately the young 
whale was captured. The Museum of Pampeluna made the acquisition of 
it. Eschricht heard this news at Copenhagen ; nothing passed in the 
world of whales that he was not informed of. ‘It is my Biscay whale,’ 
said he ; ‘ the species still exists.’ He trembled at the idea that the trea- 
sure might escape him. He arrived at Louvain nearly at the same time as 
the letter by which he informed me of the news ; announced to the Insti- 
tute of France the motive of his passage to Paris “+ arrived at Pampeluna, 
made his way at once to the coast,and buried himself in the midst of the shore 
in the study of the bones of the head and of the vertebre of this precious 
relic. The victory was his. This whale differed completely from that of 
the North.t It was really a remnant of those ancient legions which once 
on a time visited these latitudes in numerous bands, and which have since 
deserted these places. On our coast the whales stranded since the begin- 
ning of this century have been far from numerous, and we could easily 
enumerate them. Several years since, . . M.de Selys-Longchamps men- 
tioned them in his Belgian ‘Fauna.’ ‘There are but two balenoptera ; 

the one of Kessels, found dead at sea in 1827 by the Ostend fishermen .§ 


* We know that since the historie peridd many species have abandoned the centre of 
Europe, and that others have also completely disappeared. . .. The reindeer and 
elk have quitted the interior of Europe since the extinction of the mammoths. The 
Dodo and the Alea impennis have undoubtedly completely disappeared. We are fortu- 
nately not altogether certain of the latter. It is believed that the Rythina Stel/erz, the 
singular sirenian of the Beliring Sea, is equally lost; but we have had great satisfaction 
in seeing that the Museum of St. Petersburg has received a complete skeleton. Nord- 
mann, “Paliontologie Sued-Russlands,’ Helsingtors, 1859-60, p. 328. 

tT ‘ Comptes Rendus de l Académie des Sciences,’ sitting July 12th, 1858. 

¢ ‘Sur les Baleines franches du Golfe de Biscaye,’ in Comptes Rendus, 1860. Ina 
letter dated from Copenhagen, Eschricht had the kindness to inform me of the result of 
his researches on the difference of these two species of whales. “The skeleton of Pam- 
peluna has entirely occupied me,” he wrote on the 18th May. “It is the most curious 
of any that I-have met. It is nearly mounted, and the enormous difference between it 
and the Mysticetus surpasses all I had expected before my sojourn at Pampeluna. Fi- 
gure to yourself,” he added, “that it is uot more developed than the skeleton of a Mys- 
ticetus of less than a year; the ossification of the vertebree has not advanced beyond 
the transverse apophyses ; and the arches, which are not even united on both sides, are still 
separated from the body, whilst the vertebral column is as large as that of a Mysticetus 
of three years and a half.” Eschricht, ‘ Developpement du questionnaire relatif aux Cé- 
tacés,’ in ‘ Actes de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux,’ t. xxii., 4me livr. 

§ Van Breda, ‘ Kenige Bijsonderheden omtrent den Walrisch die den 5 November 
1827 bij Ostende gestrand is,’ in Algemeine Konst en Letterbode, 1827, 2¢ vol. 

Vanderlinden, Bibl. Inéd. Nat. et Htrang., t. v.. 1028.—‘ Bydragen tot de Natu- 
ralische Wetensch.,’ Ade deel, 1829.—-Messag. des Sciences, 1329. Du Bar, ‘ Osteogra- 
phie de la Baleiue,’ Br uxelles, 1828: 


100 THE GEOLOGIST. 


and which, prepared asa skeleton with much care by M. Paret, after having 
visited during twenty years the principal towns of Europe, continues at the 
present time, it appears, its peregrinations in the New World. Itis the 
Pierobalena gigas. The other balenoptera belongs to the small species, 
which does not exceed thirty feet in length, and which has always forty- 
eight vertebre ; it is the Pterobalena minor of Knox, or the Pterobalena 
vostrata of Fabricius.* The skeleton preserved in the Zoological Garden 
of Antwerp belonged to an individual stranded on the coast of Holland, 
and is of a third species, the Pterobalena communis. 

“The Academy will remember that we entertained it three years ago 
with the Dolphin Globiceps, found dead at sea by the fishermen of Heyst 
under very interesting circumstances. It was a mother, which at first 
they had taken for a barrel, and which was on the point of going down. 

“Tt is the same animal which the Feroe islanders look out for every 
year with such great anxiety, and whose flesh is esteemed by them a de- 
licious dish.§ The Grindewahl—for that is the name they give them— 
make their appearance in these isles with the thrushes and woodeocks else- 
where; with this difference, that the thrushes and woodcocks figure only 
on the tables of the rich, whilst the flesh of the grindewahl is the food 
of the poor. It is by thousands that they are taken every year; and one 
of the most curious spectacles which can be given to a sovereign is a fishery 
of the grindewahl in one of the fiords of Feroe, made in the presence of the 
King of Denmark when he visits these isles. But the most formidable of 
the cetaceans which visit our latitudes is the orca, or ork. We see it 
from time to time on our coasts. Two individuals of this dangerous spe- 
cies, a young and an adult female, were stranded in 1843-44 near Ostend, 
and an adult female was found dead on the strand in 1848. The ork is by 
far the most formidable of all the great marine animals; the colossal 
whale, even, is not exempt from his vigorous attacks; it is truly the con- 
sternation of all. Nothing is more curious than to listen to the tales of the 
fishermen of Greenland and Spitzbergen of the habits of these marine mon- 
sters. What violence in the struggle, what tenacity in the attack! One 
would think one was listening to the recitals of travellers in the deserts of 
Africa, narrating the gigantic siruggles of the great mammifers, the ter- 
rible assaults made by the lions and tigers on the elephants, the buffalos, 
or antelopes. The first of August of this year, a fine male lost itself on the 
coast of Jutland. Intelligence was sent immediately to Copenhagen, and 
Professor Eschricht made his way to the place. He wished to know above 
all on what this animal had fed during its last hours; and he soon disco- 
vered that not without reason the ork is the terror of the seas. It con- 
tained in its stomach (one would hardly have supposed it) thirteen por- 
poises and fifteen seals! My learned friend searched with a feeling of 
horror whether amongst this frightful mass of victims he could not find 


* This species comes regularly ashore on the coast of Norway. Near Bergen, they 
take them every year. Fabricius knew it well in Greenland, but he erred in giving it 
the name proposed by Linnzeus, who did not know the whales. This example shows 
that it is not always the name of the first author which ought to be preserved. There 
exists a skeleton of this species in the Royal Museum of Brussels ; another, of a young 
individual stranded at Ostend, is in the Cabinet of the University of Ghent; and a third, 
trom Greenland, formed a long time ago part of the collection of the Catholic University 
of Louvain, 

+ Bulletin de ? Académie, t. xxiv., No. 3. 

{ “Recherches sur la Faune littorale de Belgique (Cétacés).’? Mém. de Acad. Roy. 
de Belgique, t. xxxii. 

§ Comptes Rendus, t. xlvii., July 12, 1858. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 101 


some remains of asailor. A fine species of ziphioid cetacean known to 
science under the name of Delphinorhyncus micropterus, or oftener as 
Mesoplodon Sowerbiensis, was stranded some years since near the port of 
Ostend. It still uttered groans when M. Paret, the naturalist of Slykens, 
arrived on the spot. This animal, rare everywhere, and of which but one - 
complete skeleton was known, has furnished the subject of a fine memoir 
by our illustrious confrére M. du Mortier.* . . . Another species of the 
family of Ziphioids, which visits regularly the Feroe Isles, shows itself 
sometimes on our coasts. An individual was taken some years since, at 
Bergoluis, near Zierickzee, and described by M. Wesmael.¢ It is the 
Dogling, or the Hyperoodon of naturalists: A whole band was lost last year 
after bad weather on the coast of Jutland. It is this family of cetaceans 
which was most largely represented in the Crag Sea, and on this score it 
interests us in an especial manner. The porpoise is the only cetacean 
proper to our littoral ; and we are still ignorant if it be sedentary during 
the whole year on our coasts, or if it visits regularly other latitudes. very 
year at spring-time porpoises enter the Baltic by the Sound in the pursuit 
of herrings, and they only go out again in December and January by the 
Little Belt, between Fionie and Jutland.t As we find them on our coasts 
oftener in summer than in winter, it is evident that our common cetacean 
does not belong to those which take up their summer quarters in the Baltic. 

“We do not dwell on the whales in ancient times stranded in our latitudes. 
There is too much exaggeration in the statements of authors. 

“We shall only mention the cachelot or potwall, which has appeared 
several times some centuries ago in our latitudes, and of which Ambroise 
Paré has given a very recognizable figure.§ 

* B.C. du Mortier, ‘ Memoire sur le Delphinorhynque microptére échoué a Ostende,’ 
Bruxelles, 1839, in Mém. de ? Academie Royale de Bruxelles, t. x11. , 

+ Wesmael, Mémoires de l Académie Royale de Bruxelles, t. xiii., 1840. This skele- 
ton is deposited in the Brussels Museum. 

t Eschricht, Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Sciences, sitting of July 12th, 
1858. 

§ In 1189 a whale of extraordinary size was stranded at Blankenberghe;* in 1334 
the fishermen of Ostend took a marine monster of forty fect in length.f But the most 
extraordinary fact is that in the winter of 1404 eight whales, mostly of seventy feet in 
length, were thrown on the flat sandy shore near Ostend by a tempestuous sea, and taken 
nearly all alive.t That which appears least doubtful, and here the species is indicated, 
is that in 1577 and 1598 two potwalls were cast ashore: one in the Scheldt, near 
Antwerp, and figured by Ambroise Paré;§ the other at Berchey, in Holland, and de- 
scribed by Clusius, || who first figured this animal. He had seen the one stranded at 
Berchey in 1598, and another at Beverwyck in 1601; the former fifty-three feet long. 
Albert, on the authority of Cetus, speaks of two cachelots stranded in his time; one in 
Friesland, the other near Utrecht ; and knew the spermaceti, or “ blanc de baleine.”” The 
ancients do not mention it, and probably did not know the animal which produced it.4] 
Piet Bor** makes mention of an infernal monster of eighty feet, stranded on the Ist of 
May at the Sluysche Gat, and which doubtless belonged also to the cachelots. This calls 
to my mind a band of thirteen young individuals, if I do not err, which lost themselves 
some years ago at the end of the Adriatic, and of which one head is preserved in the 
Museum of the University of Berlin. 


* Montanus, Add. ad Histor. Guicciard., p. 150, ed. Amsterdam, 1646, fol. 
+ ‘Délices des Pays-Bas,’ t. iii. p. 15, 2d edit. 
+ Guicciardini, Descritt. di tutti i Paesi Bassi, fog]. 331, ed. de Plautin, 1588, in-fol. 
§ Ambroise Paré, 25e livre de ses (Huvres. 
|| Clusius im 1605. 
_ 4 Cuvier, Ossem., vol. v. p. 329. 
** “ Nederlandsche Oorlogen,’ 81te boek, fol. 6, 4te deel: 


102 THE GEOLOGIST. 


“We see clearly from what has been stated that our seas are very poor 
in whales; we can easily count the individuals which have been stranded. 
But was itso in that ancient sea which deposited the red and black sand 
of the province of Antwerp? 

“We shall remark that between the seas of two distinct geological 
epochs there existed, in respect to their great inhabitants, considerable dif- 
ferences, and these differences bear at once on the number of species and 
the quantity of individuals: as rare as they are rare now, as they were 
abundant then. 

“Tf the chemical composition of the sea has changed like its inhabitants, 
we are still ignorant of it, but we shall not, perhaps, always be so. As 
Ehrenberg has pointed his microscope to the infusoria, and Herschel his 
telescope to the stars, Bunsen and Kirchhoff direct their scrutinizing prism 
over the entire world to find out its chemical nature, and they will soon 
tell us, doubtless, whether the Crag Sea contained the same chemical ele- 
ments as the present ocean. May we not expect this from the savants who 
have noted gold and silver in the sun, and have determined the absence 
there of the most common metals of the earth, silicium and aluminium P 

“We have already said, on other occasions, that the Crag Sea nourished 
such a great quantity of seals, dolphins, and whales, that their débris forms, 
in different localities, veritable ossuaries.* Bones of all dimensions are 
there thrown pell-mell; and we see clearly that the skeletons of these great 
cetacea have eee during a long time, the playthings of the water. At 
each tide, shreds of bones and flesh were swept backward and forward by 
the waves, until the soft parts were perfectly decomposed. The cetaceans 
only were thrown upon the greatest heights, during the highest tides; 
and they were sometimes buried in their integrity. 

“ Independently of these legions of cetaceans, a great number of fishes 
frequented the same latitudes; but there are scarcely any other remains 
than those of the Selachian fishes that have come down tous. The most 
curious is the Carcharodon megalodon, which was not less than seventy 
feet in length, and for which an ox would have been only a mouthful. 
Teeth of the Carcharodon have been left in the Crag, and a very curious 
vertebra. 

It is extraordinary that we find there so few remains of osseous fishes. 
“Perhaps we may find the explanation of the rarity of the ordinary fish 
in the fact that the ziphioid cetaceans predominated in that sea, and that 
the nutriment of these cetacea consists exclusively of cephalopodous mol- 
lusca. The great whales, as we know, feed only on the pteropodous mol- 
luses, or on particular crustacea, both of small size. 

“We shall not say anything of the shell-fish, nor the superb corals, 
which peopled at that epoch the basin of Antwerp. It is upon M. Nyst, 
whose conscientious labours are so justly appreciated at home and abroad, 
will ere the task of some day entertaining you with these interesting 
animals. 

“We should not always think that these fossil bones and their high 
value in a scientific point of view may not have been already appreciated 
by naturalists. For a long time they have been known. These bones 
have often been attributed to giants. Who knows if they do not even 
enter into the legend of the origin of Antwerp? Be that as it may, the 

* ‘Les Grands et les Petits dans le Temps et dans l’Espace,’ Bull. de Acad. Royale 
de Belgique: 2e série; t: x. 

+ The cetaceans, of which the relics are found in such abundance at Saint-Nicolas, 
appear to be under these conditions. ‘Ossements Fossiles découverts & Saint-Nicolas 
en 1859,’ Bull. de PAcad. Roy. de Belgique, 2e série, t. viii. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 103 


honour of having recognized the remains of these great animats is carried 
back to a learned physician of Antwerp in the seventeenth century, Goro- 
pius Becanus.* ; 

** At the end of the last century, the Baron von Hupsch wrote upon this 
subject a very curious work.+ But it is, above all, to Cuvier we owe the 
most remarkable work on the fossil bones of Antwerp. The great natu- 
ralist of the Museunvhad received at Paris many which had been exhumed 
at the time of the excavation of the Basin of Commerce, in the reign of 
the First Napoleon.t 

** Some years ago fossil bones of cetaceans were found in great numbers 
in other localities,—the Crag Sea seemingly having had a much more con- 
siderable extension than had been previously thought. In Holland, in the 
province of Gueldres, bones have been found exactly as at Antwerp; and 
moreover a portion of a cranium, which recently came from the Baltic,§ 
appears to have belonged to an animal that had a great analogy to our 
Plesiocetes. Similar bones have also been dug up in Russia, and described 
under the name of Cetotheriwm.|| 

““A phenomenon of another kind, but equally worthy of remark, is a 
skeleton of a baleinoptera found in England, in the diluvium, at twenty- 
eight feet above the present high-water; and another discovered in Nor- 
way, near Fredericstadt, at 250 feet. above the present level of the seas.** 

“Tn spite of these inherent difficulties in the study of the fossil remains 
of cetacea, we have succeeded, however, in determining the greatest num- 
ber. We have attained to reconstituting some of them tolerably com- 
pletely. 

“In the first place, then, we have found out that the great species of 
baleinides, or cetaceans with whalebones, had then many representatives. 
Some weeks since, an entire head of one of these great animals was ex- 
posed, but, unfortunately for science, it could not be preserved. We 
possess in great number the vertebre of these whales from all parts of the 
body ; fragments of ribs and of lhmbs—comprising the shoulder-blade ; 
many portions of the cranium; the inferior maxillaries, nearly perfect; 
and, above all, the tympanic bones, , 

“ But the family which is most richly represented in that ancient sea was 
the Ziphioides. We see them of all sizes. Of these we have, first, an 
animal near to the cachalots of the present day, and of dimensions equally 
gigantic. Another offers all the characters of the existing Hyperoodon ; 
then we find numerous teeth singularly constituted, which we attribute to 
Ziphioides allied to Digplodon and Mesoplodon. Lastly, some truly dwarf 
species complete this curious family, and certainly these did not exceed in 
size the smallest dolphins of the present creation. 

“The. Cetodonts, or the cetacea with teeth, had also many other repre- 
sentatives, approaching most nearly to the long-nosed species of the tropi- 
eal regions. ‘'wo fine heads have been discovered at Vieux-Dieu, the per- 
fect preservation of which is due to the intelligent and active care of the 


* Goropius Becauus, ‘ Orig. Antwerp.’ 

T ‘ Beschreibung einiger neu entdeckten Versteinten.’ 

+ Cuvier, ‘Ossements Fossiles,’ t. v., premiére partie, p. 352 (4to edit.). 

§ Hensche and Hagen, ‘ Ueber einen auf der kurischen Nehrung bei Nidden gefundenen 
Knochen,’ Schrift. der Phys. Gicon. Gesells. in Konigsberg, Jahr i., Heft ii. He gives a 
list of the cetaceans stranded in the Baltic, and notices several fossil cetaceans. 

|| Hichwald, ‘Die Urwelt Russland’s,’ St. Petersburg, 1840, livr. lre, p. 25; Brandt, 
Institut, 1843, No, 205 et No. 449. Nordmann, ‘ Palaontologie Sued-Russlands,’ The 
last is in course of publication. 

** Stadstrath Hensche,’ loc, cit. page 7, 


104 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Captain of Engineers, Cochetaux. All the bones are admirably pre- 
served; and, if the teeth are detached from the maxillaries, we at least 
have the exact indication of their number, place, and size, by the disposi- 
tion of the alveoles. These two heads belong to animals which ought evi- 
dently to form a new genus, characterized by thirty-two teeth regularly 
spaced in the middle part of the jaws. 

“Finally, among the mammifers which inhabited that sea are also found 
littoral species; of the seals, some of which attained to grand propor- 
tions, we possess divers fragments of skeletons and of teeth, which leave 
no doubt of the presence of these singular amphibians in the ancient seas 
of these latitudes.* 7 

“The Government, seconded by the intelligent zeal of several officers of 
engineers, has specially charged the Viscomte B. du Bas, to see to the con- 
servation of these precious relics; and we shall have the occasion, we be- 
lieve, to present a tolerably complete history of one of the most singular and 
most interesting of the antediluvian animals which have been discovered. 

We speak next of the Squalodon, and we shall enter into some details of 
the history of this curious group of fossil carnivora. 

“Some years ago (1844) the Doctor Albert Koch returned from North 
America, with a rich cargo of fossil bones belonging to strange animals. 
They had been exhibited already in public before their departure for Hu- 
rope. They were successively shown in the principal towns of Germany, 
at Dresden, Berlin, and Leipsic. 

“This exhibition made a great noise, and one can comprehend why it 
could not be otherwise. An animal more than a hundred feet long, having 
head of an extraordinary form, jaws furnished with teeth such as were not 
known, and which in spite of its immoderate length, bore two small pairs 
of limbs :—it was a gigantic serpent suspended before and behind by a 
pair of fins. 

‘Curiosity was raised to the highest point. The friends of the marvel- 
lous found in it ample food for suppositions of every kind, and the savunts 
themselves did not know whether they ought to believe their eyes or their 
principles. . 

‘‘ Numerous papers were produced on the occasion. The American na- 
turalists, in the first place, took this animal for a reptile and gave it the 
name of Basilosaurus. 

“Three or four years after the discovery of these remains, the French 
and English zoologists (Dumeril, Buckland, and Owen) made of them on 
the contrary amammifer ; and Owen did not hesitate, after the examina- 
tion of a fragment, to assign it to the walruses, proposing the name of 
Zeuglodon, which it still retains. 

‘““In Germany, after the public exhibition of these numerous pieces, 
opinions were divided. 

“In reality the vertebre of several individuals had been grouped toge- 


* Bulletins de Académie, t. xx., No. 6. 

+ For the title of the principal publications on these singular animals, see the 
‘Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,’ 1834; ‘Transactions of the Geo- 
logical Society of Pennsylvania,’ vol. i., Philadelphia, 1835; Transact. Geol. Soc. of Lon- 
don, vol. vi.; ‘Comptes Rendus des séances de l’ Académie des Sciences,’ Oct. 1838; Pro- 
ceed. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, 1845; Carus, Resultate Geol. Anat. und Zool. 
Unters. tiber das unter dem Namen Hyprarcnuos von Dr. Koch zuerst nach Europa 
gebrachte grosse fossile Skelett. Dresden, 1847; De Blainville, ‘ Ostéographie,’ 1840, 
livr. vii. p. 44; Karsten’s und Dechen’s Archive, 1812; Ann. Se. Nat. iii. série, vol. v. 
ae “ae ‘Ueber die fossile Reste der Zeuglodonten von Nord-America,’ in-fol. 

erlin, 1849, 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 105 


ther; the bones of the head had been placed topsy-turvy ; of dorsal and 
lumbar vertebre a disproportionately long neck had been formed, and sa- 
vants of high reputation were completely led into error. Finally, on in- 
vestigation it was found that the bones had been brought together from 
different localities, and that with the remains of several skeletons the col- 
lectors had tried to fabricate a single animal. 

“Jean Miller boldly attacked the question, and was one of the first to 
show the grave anatomical errors which had been committed. He had 
commenced his observations whilst the skeleton was publicly exposed at 
Berlin; but he soon had the opportunity of studying it at his ease in his 
cabinet, the King of Prussia having purchased it for the Museum of the 
University of Berlin. 

* A curious circumstance was related to me by Miiller, in this laboratory 
at Berlin, when showing me the temporal bone of the Zeuglodon. Being 
asked whether the Basilosaurus, or Hydrarchos as it had also been called, 
was a reptile or a mammifer, Muller was going through the galleries 
of comparative anatomy, accompanied by some friends; he held the tem- 
poral bone in his hand to exhibit his views of the structure of the ear, and 
in talking the bone slipped from him, and was broken on the floor. All 
were in consternation! What aloss! <A unique piece of such importance 
destroyed! They picked up directly the pieces with the greatest care, but 
what was the astonishment of the professor and those who surrounded him, 
when it was seen that the cochlea of the internal ear was exposed, showing 
its twist and spiral turns. An accident had transformed the bone of the 
ear into a fine anatomical preparation, and the demonstration of the nature 
of the animal was thus made. The Hydrarchos could only be a mammifer. 

‘In Europe, a short time after, a paleontological discovery not less im- 
portant was made. Don Grateloup.. . discovered, in 1840, at Leognan, 
near Bordeaux, a fragment of the cranium, which he thought should be 
assigned to an animal belonging both to the fish and the reptiles, to which 
he gave the name of Sgualodon !* 

** Since then, the remains of similar or allied animals have been disco- 
vered at Lintz,+ in Upper Austria, by M. Ehrlich; in the environs of 
Montpelier; at St. Jean de Végas,t by Paul Gervais; and in Holland, in 
the province of Gueldres,§ by M. Staring. 

* Grateloup, ‘ Description d’un fragment de machoire fossile d’un genre nouveau de 
Reptile (Saurien) voisin de l’Iguanodon,’ Bordeaux, 1 Mai, 1840; Actes de l’Acad. des 
Sc. de Bordeaux, 2e année, 2e trimestre; De Blainville, ‘Ostéographie,’ t. vii. p. 44, 
1840, Passing accidentally through Bordeaux that same year in company with the 
Viscount Felix de Spoelberch, on returning from a tour in the Pyrenees, I remarked to 
Dr. Grateloup that the Sgua/odon, instead of being a reptile or a fish, presented all the 
characters of a Mammifer allied to the dolphins, and I wrote on this point a letter from 
Bordeaux to M. de Blainyille which the illustrious professor has reproduced in his 
* Ostéographie.’ 

+ Ehrlich, ‘ Eilfter Bericht iiber das Museum Francisco-Carolinum,’ s. 13; Troschel’s 
Archiy, Jahresbericht, f. 1850, p.32, Berlin, 1851 ; Carl Ehrlich, ‘ Ueber die nordéstlichen 
Alpen,’ Linz, 1850, p. 12; ‘Geognostiche Wanderungen . . . Linz,’ 1856, p. 81; ‘ Die 
geoenostische Abtheilung des Museums,’ p. 10; * Beitrage zur Palaoutologie,’ Linz, 1855, 

: 9. 
. t Gervais, ‘ Paléontologie Francaise,’ 
§ Staring, ‘ Versteningen uit den tertiairen leem van Hibergen en Winterswyk in Gel- 
derland,’ Bodem, van Nederland, ii. p. 216. M. Staring has recently made a re-survey 
“of, the localities where bones of the quaternary age have been discovered: Apercu des 
Oxssements fossiles de lépoque diluvienne, trouvés dans la Néerlande et les contrées 
voisines ; extrait des ‘ Bulletins et Comptes Rendus de l’Académie Royale des Sciences,’ 
vol. xii., Amsterdam, 1861, 
VOL. V. P 


106 THE GEOLOGIST. 


“The Sgualodan and the Zeuglodon evidently resemble each other in 
the singular conformation of their dental system. But what is the degree 
of their affinity? To what family do they belong? Or do they form a 
type completely lost ? and, in the ease of an affirmative, what place ought 
to be assigned to them P ea 

‘«‘These questions, and many others, wait for solution; and it will be 
readily conceived what high value is attached to the discovery of some 
bones of the Sgualadon in the Crag of Antwerp. 

«We are fortunately now in possession of many important portions of 
the head, the extremity of the upper maxillary, the intermaxillary with 
its teeth, the posterior part of the palate, many fragments of the inferior 
maxillary, and other parts of the skeleton. 

“Lastly, to-make out every possible part of these precious relics, the 
Government has, at the request of the Academy, commissioned me to 
visit the principal Museums of Germany and Austria; and we hope shortly 
to produce a work containing a reply to these different questions. The 
museum which most interested us in our last journey is the Vaterlandisches 
Museum of Lintz, which contains the most precious remains of the Squalo- 
don that are known. They were deposited there by M. Ehrlich. Thanks 
to the intelligent and active care of that able naturalist, this Museum con- 
tains, moreover, other fossils of high interest from the basin of Lintz. 

“We have found there two much-broken portions of the cranium of the 
Squalodon: knowing before the base of the palate, and possessing frag- 
ments of tbe jaws with the teeth, and moreover the upper maxillary, it was 
not difficult for us to reconstruct the head of this aquatic carnivore. The 
dental system of these animals is equally well known to us now, even to 
the principal differences the species present between each other,—at most 
ouly a doubt remains on the subject of one of the molars. 

‘We will say a word on its characters. 

“The cranium is greatly depressed; the parietals form a part o. the ce- 
phalic box, and the frontal bones extend regularly forward and over the 
side, without being folded back (refouwlés) by the nasal cavities, as in the 
true cetacea. The zyomatic arches are large. but incomplete. The teeth 
are of three kinds, but put on only two different forms; the incisors and 
the premolars are like the canines; six incisors are implanted in the bone of 
that name, and of these six incisors the two middle ones are directed for- 
wards in the direction of the axis of the body, not like the sword of the 
narwhal, but more like the great incisors of the shrew-mouse. The canines 
are succeeded by five simple premolars, regularly spaced ; then seven true 
molars with two fangs and a compressed and ecrenulated crown (chiefly on 
the hinder edge) complete this singular dental system. 

‘We have been able to convince ourselves, also, from the tolerably 
perfect head of the Sgualodon at Lintz, that, contrary to our anticipations, 
the nasal holes are directed from back to front, and differed in this respect 
from the existing blowing-whales. In the latter we know the cavity of 
the nostrils rises straight up, or even slightly backwards, and that it is this 
direction which permits their spouting perpendicularly their columns of 
water, or rather of vapour, from their nostrils. If we wished to figure the 
Syualodon as the dolphins are commonly represented, it should be drawn 
ejecting columns of vapour obliquely forwards, and not upwards. We 
endeavoured to profit, also, by our sojourn in Germany, in learning what 
were the other inhabitants of the sea which nurtured the Sgzalodon, in 
order to compare it with our Crag Sea. There is in the same Museum at 
Lintz a cranium of the highest interest in this comparative study. All the 
posterior portion is tolerably complete. It approaches closely by its size 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 107 


to our commonest plesiocetes ; but, in the conformation of the drum of the 
ear, in characters of the fragments of the inferior maxillary which had not 
been recognized, as also by the vertebre from different regions of the 
body, this cetacean differed notably from all that the Crag Sea contained. 
We are able even to add, that it had nothing in common with the Ba- 
lenodon of Owen.* 

“The Balenodon of Lintz is rather a ziphioid, and we doubt much if 
the tooth which has been assigned to it belongs really to that animal. 
The tympanum of this pretended Balenodon indicates the existence of 
characters far removed from the whalebone-whales of the Crag, and 
ally it to the Hyperodon or the ziphioids. For the rest, we believe 
we have recognized, among the undetermined bones in the Museum of 
Lintz, fragments of the inferior maxillary remarkable for their height and 
their great flatness, and which leave hardly any doubt on the subject. 
Since our journey, this Balenodon has been designated in our manuscripts 
under the name of Axlocete, on account of the cranial furrow. 

“In the same sea of Upper Austria is found also a delphinoid which is 
unknown to science; but unfortunately it is represented by a single tooth. 

** In the fine Museum of Stutgart we have found yet two other remark- 
able cetaceans of the same sea, the Arvionius servatus of H. von Meyer,t 
. . . and anew ziphioid that we hope soon to see described. The latter 
has the seven cervical vertebra isolated ; and the drums of the tympanum, 
still in place, are remarkable for their form, their large size, and, above all, 
for the great thickness of their solid walls. . . But of all the inhabitants 
of the seas of that age, undoubtedly the most interesting are the fossil 
sirenians known under the name of Halitherium. They inhabited the 
coasts, or rather the embouchures of rivers, which they could ascend son e 
distance at need. To judge of them by the numerous relics found in dif- 
ferent localities, at Darmstadt amongst others, these strange animals in- 
habited in abundance the Sea of the Molasse, whilst the Crag Sea has 
not harboured any of their remains. In the present creation we see 
the sirenians chiefly in the tropical regions. The Senegal and the 
Amazon foster them abundantly. The finest skeleton known of the Ha- 
litherium is 11 the Museum of Darmstadt; it shows the pelvis and a 
femur, of which the extremity is lodged in a cotyloid cavity. We are 
pleased to learn that Dr. Kaup, by whose pains so many paleontological 
treasures have been connected together, proposes to model completely this 
important relic of the ancient world. ‘The Sirenians lived together with 
_the Squalodons in the Sea of Lintz; but it is probable that these bones at 

Darmstadt belong to individuals which had mounted high up the river, 
and which thus are found far from the other marine animals. It is pos- 
sible, also, that the waters below which these sands were deposited at Lintz 
and Darmstadt were brought by two opposing streams, like the Rhine 
and the Danube of the present day. . . All the bones at Lintz have been 
found in a thick bed of coarse sand, situated immediately below the quater- 


* Hermann von Meyer has described this head at Linta under the name of Baleno- 
don Lintanus, believing these remains ought to be placed with those which Owen had 
found in the Crag. But what we do not comprehend is that this learned paleonto- 
logist has been able to tind more affinity between the Balenodon and the Zeuglodon 
than between it and the Sgvalodon. See also C. Ehriich, ‘ Geognostische Wanderungen,’ 
Linz, 1850, p. 83, pt. ti.-iv.; ‘ Beitrage zur Palaontologie,’ Linz, 1855, p. 8. 

+ H. vou Meyer, Arionatus Servatus, ‘Hin den Delphinen verwandtes Meeres Siuge- 
thier,’ N. Jahrb. 1841; p. 315; ‘ Paleontolographica,’ vol. vi., Cassel; 1856-58, p. 3], 
pt. vi. ; 


108 THE GEOLOGIST. 


nary strata, and known under the name of molasse. This molasse cor- 
responds, without doubt, chronologically with the Crag, . 

“ We will say in conclusion, that the Pompeii for us Belgian paleontolo- 
gists 1s the ceological basin of Antwerp. There a new world reveals itself to 
the attention of naturalists. Marine forms there alternate with terrestrial, 
and the species of the Brussels basin, of which the remains have been so 
carefully collected by the intelligent perseverance of M. le Captaine Le 
Hon, had long disappeared, when the Crag Sea was peopled with its new 
and curious inhabitants. 

“To the fauna which has been buried in the clay of Boom and of Ru- 
pelmonde, and which is distinguished by its superb remains of marine 
turtles, succeeded a fauna of elegant cetaceans; after the appearance 
of these giants of the sea, the soil was prepared to receive the mammoth 
and tichorine rhinoceros,—to finish in that which alone could complete the 
grand work. Millions have been spent in clearing out ruins and passages; 
let us profit by the millions spent in the national defences and set our- 
selves to the study, not of temples and forums, but of sandy shores fre- 
quented of old by that old-world creation, so rich in variety of forms, 
so full of the power of primitive nature. tm 

“Tet us found in the capital a Belgian museum, and unite our efforts to 
those of the Government to preserve in the same locality all the treasures 
of our soil. The galleries of the Belgian Museum should be spread beside 
the strata—those leaves of the grand book of our country, and the 
mineralogical and paleontological collections located with the actual 
fauna and flora; and by the side of these products of the soil should be 
shown the chefs-d’euvre of art and the marvels of industry.’”* 


NOTES AND QUERIES.. 


TravELLED Bovtpers.—In the January number of the ‘ Geologist,’ the 
editor states in his interesting article on ‘Some Fossil Fruits from the 
Chalk,” that it is one of the features of the Magazine, “that matters not 
understood should be brought before the world in its pages.” The follow- 
ing remarks, if they do not give information, may, at least, cause some in- 
telligent reader to answer certain questions regarding what have been 
termed travelled or scratched boulders. 

Sir C. Lyell, in his ‘ Principles of Geology,’ has given a map, showing 
the extent of surface in Europe which has at one period or another been 
covered by the sea since the commencement of the deposition of the older 
or Eocene Tertiary strata. In his interesting and valuable description of 
this map, he remarks that the researches of Mr. James Smith, of Jordan- 
hil, and others, among the northern deposits, enable us to discover the 
signs of a climate colder than that now prevailing. The Jordamhill here 
mentioned is a small estate in the neighbourhood of the city of Glasgow, 
not far from the river Clyde, and occupies a very small part of the area 
which can be proved by geological evidence to have been covered by the 
sea. The talented and highly respected proprietor above mentioned has 
published, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, ete., descriptions 
of the arctic sheils discovered by him when examining the till, or boulder- 
clay, on his estate and in the neighbourhood. 

The scratched or rounded travelled boulders found in the till at Jordan: 


* Bull. de Acad. des Se. de Bruxelles. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 


hill give also, in my humble opinion, evidence of the existence, at one 
time, of a large mass of ice. The following sketch shows the strange 
manner in which granite can be smoothed and polished by natural causes. 
The sketch represents a granite boulder found several feet under the sur- 
face in the immediate neighbourhood of Jordanhill House, where it now 
lies not far from the garden-wall. The questions, What kind of force 
rounded this piece of granite, Does the fact that a portion of it—the vein 
almost in the centre—has not been removed, prove the said force to be ice? 
are questions not easily answered. 

The vein of quartz, a a, has been left un- 
touched by the force that has removed the granite 
originally on a level with it, bb; the force that 

z has done this appears therefore to have been too 
weak to cut the vein of quartz. A stronger force 
may have previously cut the vein, or, what is more 
likely, the force that was polishing this travelled 
boulder, has sent it into a groove or furrow, 

which has prevented the vein of quartz from being lessened so quickly as 
the granite on each side of it. 

J am inclined to imagine that this boulder and other similarly scratched 
boulders, brought to the surface in this neighbourhood, proves the exist- 
ence of stones carried along upon ice, called in Switzerland the ‘‘moraines”’ 
of the glacier. Sir C. Lyell asserts that ‘‘ all sand and fragments of soft 
stone which fall through fissures and reach the bottom of the glaciers, or 
which are interposed between the glacier and the steep sides of the valley, 
are pushed along, and ground down ito mud, while the larger and harder 
fragments have their angles worn off.” This quotation is taken from the 
last edition of the ‘ Principles of Geology. —P. 8. Whiteinch, Glasgow. 

PERMANENCY OF VEGETABLE OrGanisms.—The powder of a brick 
found on the site of the ancient Egyptian town of EHileithyia, examined 
under the microscope, proved to contain several fragments of animal and 
vegetable remains, among which those of eight species of plants were still 
in a state fit for specific determination. These eight species are in no way 
different from those at present growing and cultivated in Egypt and Nubia ; 
a proof that a period of 3500 to 4000 years (the probable age of the brick 
under examination) has passed away, without any notable change taking 
place in the climate and vegetation of Egypt. More extensive examina- 
tions of similar materials may be expected to throw new light on the former 
flora of this seat of ancient culture.—Pror. UneeEr, Imp. Acad. of Science, 
Vienna, Jan. 9th, 1862. 

EartHquakrE PHENOMENA.—Dear Sir,—It is with some reluctance I 
venture to trouble you with an inquiry, but I know of no other from whom 
I could expect a reply which would be of equal value to me. 

1. Suppose the direction of earthquake undulation were from east to 
west, would there be any probability of a valley or deep chasm being 
formed at right angles with the direction of the earthquake, z.e. from north 
to south P 

2. Would it be probable that earthquake waves would run parallel with 
the mountain systems with which they were associated ? 

3. Suppose an earthquake to emanate from a given point, would there 
be a probability of its undulation extending in opposite directions from 
that point P—SuBSCRIBER. 

1, Earthquake undulations (7.e. shocks) are incapable of forming valleys 
or deep chasms, by their direct action, at all. 

Whatever chasms or fissures are produced are due to “secondary ac- 


110 THE GEOLOGIST. 


tions ;”—viz. to land-slips, or dislocations of rocky masses by gravitation, 


operating upon shaken country. 
All such are in directions on the surface tending towards transverse of 


shock. 

2. Earthquake shocks traverse furthest and most powerfully in the axial 
lines of mountain chains, and vice versd, by reason of the fact that in the 
former lines the rocky masses are most solid and homogeneous. 

3. Every earthquake emanates from a centre, which is practically a 
point or line, or smail area or surface ; and the waves of pulse, necessarily, 
are propagated in all directions outwards from such centre of impulse, 
therefore in opposite directions. 

Weshould suggest to our correspondent to study Mr. R. Mallet’s papers 
on, 1. “ The Dynamics of Earthquakes,” Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. 2. The 
article “‘ Earthquake Observations,” by the same author, in the ‘ Admi- 
ralty Manual. 3. Mr. Mallet’s first and subsequent reports on ‘The 
Facts of Earthquakes,” Trans. Brit. Association. 

EarTHQUAKE-SHOCKS were felt at Cosenza (Calabria Citerior) on the 14th 
October, and at Ravenna on the 16th October last. On the 29th, a water- 
spout passed over Rome, causing much damage; the day after there oc- 
curred a violent tempest, and the magnetic instruments were greatly agi- 
tated. M. Alexis Perrey, Professor at Dijon, who for many years has fur- 
nished an annual statement of the shocks experienced by our globe, has sent 
to the Royal Academy of Belgium, a new “‘ Note sur les tremblements 
de terre en 1859.” 

Presiosaurus In Cuite.—A cardal vertebra of Plesiosaurus Chilensis 
has been transmitted to me for identification by W. Bollaert, Esq., F.R.G.S., 
from San Vicente, near Talecahuano, in the neighbourhood of Concepcion, 
Chile. This species was founded by Gay (Historia fisica y politica de 
Chile), on various vertebral bones, which were found at the small island of 
Quiriquina, off Cape Talcahuano, in the Bay of Concepcion. ‘The vertebra 
from San Vicente appears to present no specific difference from the Ple- 
slosaurus Chilensis of Gay. A fragment of paddle-bone was found in the 
same locality:—CHartEs Cartier Brake. 

SavRoip Remains.—Professor Agassiz, in a letter to Dr. Silhman,* 
describes some new Saurcid remains of very great interest, discovered by 
Mr. O. C. Marsh, a student of Yale College, from the coal-formation of 
South Jogems. These are two vertebre, which have excited Professor 
Agassiz’s interest in the highest degree. He says, ‘I have never seen in 
the body of a vertebra such characters combined as are here exhibited. 
At first sight they might be mistaken for ordinary Ichthyosaurus vertebre ; 
but a closer examination soon shows a singular notch in the body of the 
vertebra itself, such as J have never seen in reptiles, though the character 
is common in fishes; we have here undoubtedly a nearer approximation to 
a synthesis between fish anid reptile than has yet been seen: . . . The disco- 
very of the Ichthyosauri was not more important than that of these verte- 
bre ; but what would be the knowledge of their existence without the ex- 
tensive comparisons to which it has led? Now these vertebra ought to be 
carefully compared with the vetebre of bony fishes, with those of sauroid 
fishes, of selachians; of batrachians, of the oolitie ecrocodilians, of the 
newer croeodihans, of the ichthyosaurians, and of the plesiosaurians, and 
all their points of resemblance, and difference stated ; because I do not be- 
lieve there is a vertebra known thus far, in which are combined features of 
so many vertebre in which these features appear separately as character- 
istic of their type.” 


* Published iu the ‘American Journal of Science and Art? January, 1862. 


NOTES AND QUERIES, ye! 


New Canapian Lower Sirnvrian Fosstts.—Mr. Billings has described, 
in a bulletin recently issued (Montreai, November, 1861), the following new 
species from the Potsdam group (Primordial zone), at Straits of Belle 
Isle, north-east coast of America:— Paleophycus incipiens, Archeocyathus 
atlanticus, A. Minganensis, Obolus Labradoricus, O. chromatica, O. cingu- 
lata, Conocephalites miser, Bathyurus senectus, B. parvulus, Salterella 
rugosa, S. obtusa, and S. pulchella.* From Vermont :—Paleophycus 
congregatus, Orthisina fistinata, Camerella antiquata, Conocephalites 
Adamsi, C. teucer, C. arenosus, and C. vuleanus. From rocks of the age 
of the Trenton, Chazy, and Black River Limestone :—Hospongia Roemerii, 
E. varians, Astylospongia parvula, Lingula Perry, Lituites Fanisworthi, 
L. imperator, and Ampyx Hall. 

The new genera are Hospongia, Archeocyathus, Obolella, and Salterella. 
The second includes small Brachiopods allied to Obolus (of Eichwald), but 
differing internally. The fourth is for a group of small conical bodies, 
possibly Pteropoda, and related to Theca, Morris, and Puginuculus, Bar- 
rande. 

CarBontFERous Beps oF Dinant.—M. E. Dupont, a young naturalist, 
has collected an immense quantity of fossils from the carboniferous lime- 
stone of Dinant. His notice, communicated to the Belgian Academy, com- 
mences with the description of twelve localities, Celles, Hayont, Furfooz, 
Fossés, Freyr, Pauquys, Matignolles, Flavion, Corenne, Yves, Anseremme, 
and Awagne, and is accompanied by lists of the species most common in 
each locality. To it is appended a table showing the number of species 
met with in each of those localities, and the names of those which have been 
determined. Two hundred and seventy described species belong to 57 
genera and 8 classes, and are from localities hitherto lttie known ; while 
255 others, belonging to 36 genera, are probably new species, by which our 
paleontological records will be enriched. The labours of M. Dupont, 
moreover, make apparent a very remarkable fact in Natural History, 
namely, the difference of the animal populations in very near localities at 
the same epoch, and on a ground-bottom of the same nature ; for although 
the author only occupied himself with a district not more than eight leagues 
square, and has confined his investigations to the caleareous rocks of one 
geological stage—the Calcaire de Tournay—each of these twelve sections 
presents a fauna with peculiar characters. 

Duties or Minrerat Acents.—Many works on the improvement of 
estates treat fully on agriculture and forestry, but all either wholly neglect 
or only cursorily touch upon the mineral resources. 

The *‘ Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science,’ for January last, contains 
an excellent article ‘‘On the Duties of Mineral Agents,” in which there is 
a variety of useful, practical information. The subjects treated are,— 
1. The Mineral Agent’s Relations with the Mine-Lord. 2. Mineralogy. 
3. Table of Characters of Ores. 4. Mining Geology. 5. Mineral Chemis- 
try. 6. Mine-surveying. 7. An Appendix containing Forms of Take- 
Notes, Mining-Leases, and Licenses, ete. 

SaURIAN Remarns IN THE JuRa.—M. Chepard, one of the engineers 
of the railway now constructing in the vicinity of Poligny, has noticed in 
the ‘ Sentinelle du Jura,’ the discovery, in making one of the enttings for 
the line, of the remains of a large Saurian, which, from the dimensions of 
the bones, he considers to have been from thirty to forty metres (P) in 
length. The remains consist of three claws of from eight to twelve centi- 
metres in length, several phalanges with fine articular surfaces, a part of 


* He has also identified from the same place, Scholithus linearis and Barrandia (vel 
Obolus) Thomsoni, and B. (v. O,) Vermontana, 


AZ THE GEOLOGIST. 


the tarsus and metatarsus, two vertebre, and various fragments. ‘‘ These 
remains,” he says, “lay in the upper strata of the Keuper, visibly over- 
lapped by the Lias. ‘This formation has hitherto been considered as de- 
void of organic remains in this country (France), where it contains gypsum 
and rock-salt. Nevertheless, some years ago, M. Pidancet, a geologist of 
the Franche-comté, found in these same strata large bones, which he depo- 
sited in the Museum of Besangon, and which he considers as belonging to 
the same species. A few months ago, while opening a ditch for the rail- 
road near Domblans, a similar fragment was found; and M. Lauckardt, 
one of the employés, has seen also at the same place other bones much 
larger, which he could not displace on account of their fragility. 
MamwMatian Remains.—M. Froment, the Mayor of Saint-Lothaire, 
has found bones of mammoth and deer in a bed of sand and marl contain- 
ing boulders of quartz and numerous fragments of terrestrial and freshwater 
shells—‘ SENTINELLE DU JURA.’ 
Noputar Bopirs From THE CraGc.—Sir,—Could any of your readers 
inform me as to what causes certain bodies of this shape in the 
\ Red Crag of Suffolk ¥ I have met with them in great numbers 
along the cliffs at Bawdsey. They are made up of the same 
materials as the rest of the crag, but seem to be harder and 
¥v—} contain more oxide of iron. They are hollow in the middle, 
—r, )} and measure from an inch to a foot in length. Their origin, 
fi perhaps, is the same as the Sabella tubes mentioned in a former 
y= y\ Number by Mr. Brent. They are exposed only by the action 
~s-»} of wind and water on account of their superior hardness. I 


' should be glad of any information concerning them, however 
a small.—! remain yours, etc., VotuTa, 
“ [We handed this query over to a correspondent, who pon- 


+} dered over the reply to be given on the origin of these mystical 
bodies until he fell asleep and dreamed that at a considerable 
outlay of time, trouble, and expense, he had submitted it to va- 
rious competent authorities, and by special trains, electric messages, etc., 
had been favoured with the following answers :— 

“Sponges,” J.S. B. ‘“ Annelid-tubes,’ J. W. S. ‘“ Cephalaspid tails,” 
G. E.R. “Casts of tree-roots,” C. B. “Lightning-tubes,” G. D. G. 
‘ Hffects of Water-spouts,” J.T. “‘Hlongate-ovate Crystalloids,” H. C.S. 
‘* Alveoline,’” W. B.C. “‘ Ovoid bodies of Teredines,’” N. T. W. “ Nests 
of Kntomostraca,” T. R. J. ‘* Horn-cores of Bos,’ H. F. “ Derived fos- 
sils from the Coal” and “Casts of bore-holes of Saxicava, in place,” 
J. M. “ Fossil wasp-nests,” I.O. W. “ Coprolite of a Gorilla,” R. O. 
‘Not a Coprolite of a Gorilla,’ J. E.G. ‘‘ Cases of Caddis-worm (Phry- 
ganea Hercules),” H. T. S. “ Joint of Cragocrinus,” E.W. “ Foetal 
Whales,” T, H. H, “Casts of Swallow-holes,” J. P. ‘“ Objects of Human 
Industry, such as rusty spikes, tenpenny nails, marling-pikes, sounding- 
leads, or such like,” B. de P. “ Prochronie Tailor-birds’ Nests,” P. G. 
“ Darwinian Kau-de-Cologne Bottles,” F. W. H.] 

Grotocy Brimrrry Exptarnrp.—The following admirable and succinct 
epitome of our science, in use by Professor King, at Queen’s College, 
Galway, will be found very useful by many of our younger readers, and 
for lecture purposes by our elder ones. 

Definition of the Science.—Geology (from ge, the earth, and logos, a dis- 
course) treats of the nature and order of arrangement of the rocks composing 
the crust of the globe; ofthe physico-geographical changes which its surface 
has undergone ; and of the various plants and animals with which the 
lands and waters of by-gone periods haye been tenanted, as well as the 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 113 


order of their creation. (The last section is termed paleontology, from pa- 
laios, ancient, and onta, beings.) 

It is necessary to mention that geology throws no light on the origin of 
the world, or on the nature and state of the materials occurring beneath 
its crust, or on its condition anterior to the setting-in of ordinary physico- 
geographical agencies—those are hypothetical subjects. 

The following are some of the principal geological deductions :— 

1. The rocks forming the known portion of the crust of the earth are 
of two kinds, as regards the origin of their present condition. One con- 
sists of masses which have been subject to a high temperature ; and the 
other of materials deposited by the agency of water. They are respec- 
tively termed Jgneous and Aqueous. Principal Igneous rocks: granites, 
syenites, porphyries, diorites, felstone, basalt, obsidian, ete. Principal 
Aqueous rocks: limestones, sandstone, shale, slatestone, salt, gypsum, 
marl, chalk, ete. 

2. The formation of Igneous and Aqueous rocks has been going on from 
an immeasurably remote epoch, and still continues, 

The existence of some kind of Igneous rocks in a refrigerated and con- 
solidated condition, anterior to the formation of Aqueous deposits, can 
only be hypothetically assumed. 

3. Certain Igneous rocks, as granites and the like, extend, en masse, 
below the surface of the earth to unfathomable depths; and wherever ob- 
served in contact with Aqueous vocks, they form the foundation of the 
latter ; others, as basalts and lavas, have been ejected from great depths ; 
and they generally occur overspreading other rocks. 

The doctrine of the Igneous origin of granite and allied rocks has been 
much contested of late; there is little doubt, however, of their having 
been subject to a high temperature (see 6th deduction). 

4. Aqueous deposits, occurring nearly everywhere, and often several 
thousand feet in thickness, have been derived from previously existing Igne- 
ous rocks, or from prior-formed deposits of their own class, through the me- 
chanical and chemical action of atmospheric agents, springs, rivers, lakes, 
and seas. In this way, huge mountain-masses have been worn ‘lown (de- 
nuded), and valleys excavated ; while their materials have been trans- 
ported to the mouths of rivers, or disseminated over the bottom of lakes 
and oceans. The remains of plants, corals, shells, and other organisms 
(fossils) frequently enter into the composition of Aqueous rocks: some- 
times beds are entirely made up of such remains. 

5. Aqueous rocks, with few exceptions, have been slowly and gradually 
deposited in more or less horizontal beds (strata) ;—the order of superpo- 
sition of the beds being the order of their successive formation ; while 
their relative position denotes their relative period of deposition in the 
scale of geological time. 

6. Subterranean heat and heated vapours, in many cases emanating 
from proximate igneous sources, have frequently penetrated deep-seated 
Aqueous rocks, producing in them molecular re-arrangements, and a more 
or less crystalline structure, or a change of chemical composition ; thereby 
obliterating many of their original characters, and otherwise metamor- 
phosing them. List of Metamorphic rocks: gneiss, mica schist, hornblend 
schist, quartz stone, statuary marble, etc. 

Possibly all known Igneous rocks were originally Aqueous deposits that 
have been completely melted. | | 

7. The surface of the earth has repeatedly undergone both slow and 
sudden upheavals and depressions. The former movements have raised 
wide-spread horizontal beds from the bottom of seas, often several thou: 

YOU. Y. Q 


114 THE GEOLOGIST. 


sand feet above their original level, throwing them into high angles, as 
well as dislocating, fracturing, squeezing, and crumpling them: in this 
way, vast continents and mountain-chains have been formed. On the 
other hand, movements of depression have plunged beds far below their 
original level. Both kinds of disturbances have often been followed by 
extensive climatal changes, which have materially affected the life-system 
of our planet. ’ | 

8. Vegetable and animal life has. existed on the earth during an im- 
mense and undefinable period. 

9. The plants and animals, whose remains are entombed so frequently 
in Aqueous rocks, have in general lived while the deposits containing 
them were in process of formation. 

10. Successive creations and extinctions of plants and animals have 
taken place; so that, of the innumerable kinds (species) which have been 
in existence, only a comparatively small number is now living. 

11. The life-system of our earth, in its various phases, has undergone 
‘an advance and progress in the main.” 


REVIEWS. 


Works of Julius Schvarcz, Ph.D. 

1. A Fajtakerdes Szinvonala harom ér elétt. Pest, 8vo, 1861. 

2. Foldtani Himéletek a Hellénségnel nagy sdndor Kordig. Pest, 8vo, 
1861. 

3. Recherches sur les Théories géologiques des Grecs. Mémoire présenté 
al Académie des Sciences. Vienna, 8vo, 1861. 

4. Lampsacusi Strato, adalek a tudomdny torténetehez. Pest, 8vo, 
1861. 

5. La Géologie Antique, et les Fragments du Clazoménien. Mémoire 
présenté a la 28° Session du Congrés Scientifique de France. Pest, 
Ato, 1861. 


Jt is with much pleasure that English geologists and paleontologists re- 
eeive the intelligence that the controversy on the Origin of Species, car- 
ried on with increased vigour and animosity since the publication of Mr. 
Charles Darwin's deservedly esteemed work, has spread its exciting influ- 
ence as far as the base of the Carpathians. Dr. Julius Schvarez, a learned 
Hungarian, has recently published the works the titles of which we give 
above, and which embody the matured reflections of the most advanced 
paleontological school. This gentleman’s works are published in the 
Magyar language ; we believe that it is the first time that this ancient 
Usgrian dialect has been used to disseminate the principles of Natural 
Selection. The Age of Man, his contemporaneity with the extinct animals, 
the Abbeville discoveries, and the distribution over the surface of the globe 
of fossils monkeys, are all discussed in these works with an erudition sur- 
prising to Enghsh geologists, who are not prepared to find that the war- 
fare carried on in the Zoological Section of the British Association in 
1860 attracted attention in Hungarian scientific circles. The principles of 
Dr. Schvarez seem ultra-transmutationist. He dates the creation of man to 
a period far transcending in remoteness the historical period, and endorses 
the opinions of Sir C, Lyell and Mr. Darwin. The most interesting work of 
his is that one (Recherches sur les Théories Géologiques des Grecs) in which 


REVIEWS. 115 


he strives to demonstrate that the voleanological theories of modern geolo- 
gists were anticipated by the early Greek authors. This work is entirely 
written in the Greek language, with which Dr. Schvarcz seems more fami- 
liar, we fear, than many of our most fervent labourers in Geology. ‘The 
theory of Progressive Development was warmly adopted and sustained by 
nearly ail the ancient naturalists.” This is consolatory to those who be- 
lieve with Professor De Morgan that ‘‘ for a science to become respectable, 
it is necessary that it should be founded by somebody whom nobody ever 
heard of, and whose works nobody has ever read.”’ It is impossible, how- 
ever, that the classical writers could have been possessed of the funda- 
mental truths of geology by any other method than an @ priori guess. 
We are positively afraid that if Dr. Schvarez demonstrates that our pro- 
gressive development theories are due to the comprehensive generalizations 
of Empedocles, some of the less philosophical hypotheses of the nineteenth 
century may also claim classical descent, and we cannot forget that Mr. 
Gosse’s ‘Omphalos’ was anticipated in the time of the author of ‘ Hudi- 
bras. However this may be, we cannot fail to render justice to the clas- 
sical and geological acquirements of Dr. Schvarez. He writes upon a 
subject ‘‘ nemine axtea trito solo,’ and with the exception of the late Pro- 
fessor Lassault, and Englishmen are now proud to add Sir George Corne- 
wall Lewis, no writer has hitherto ventured to discuss questions fraught 
with such deep interest to the geologist, paleontologist, antiquarian, and 
classicist. We cannot forbear remarking that the beauty of the paper and 
typography of these voluminous Hungarian works, might do credit to 
nations more familiar with scientific requirements. 


On the Tenby Bone Caves. By a Pembrokeshire Rector. 
London: Kent & Co. 


A small unpretentious pamphlet, containing a great many valuable facts 
and suggestions, as the following extracts will show :— 

* Among all the wonders that the prevailing study of the earth’s con- 
struction has brought to light, there is not one more striking than the 
presence here in England of great quantities of the bones of wild animals, 
known to inhabit tropical regions, which are found colleeted together in 
certain natural caves. 

““ At Tenby the fact appears in its most striking aspect; for such caves 
occur, and such bones have been obtained from them in Caldy Island. 
Now to suppose that herds of elephants, and bippopotami, and families of 
lions, tigers, and hyenas, could have lived and been sustained on a small 
island which is all but a mass of solid rock, is as impossible to imagine as 
that av the human inhabitants of the earth should find room to dwell there 
together. 

‘** Be the answer what it may, here, beyond all doubt, are the bones of 
these creatures, taken from certain caves in Caldy Island, and in the main- 
land ; some from ‘the Oyle,’ on a spur of the Ridgeway ; and quantities 
from caves in Gower, and elsewhere. No less than 1100 horns of deer, 
ed shed horns, have been lately exhumed from one cave in Gower 
only. 

“The first of these caves... was discovered about twenty years ago by 
the quarrymen in blasting the cliff overhanging the sea on the north face 
of the island. It had no external opening at that time apparent. ‘The 
walls were vertical, or nearly so; the strata being... perpendicular to the 
plane of the horizon. This cave was formed by a portion of the stratum, 
of considerable thickness, having disappeared at the place. Both the walls 


116 THE GEOLOGIST. 


and the roof have since been removed by the quarrymen, and transported 
in the routine of their trade to Ilfracombe or Barnstaple ; so that no cave 
exists there now; and the old earthy floor which contained the bones... 
is covered with soil and fragments of the blasted rock. 

“ Bones of the following animals were extracted from it :—Mammoth 
(Elephas primigentus), rhinoceros (Rhinoceros leptorhinus), lion, or tiger 
(Felis tigris), hyena (Hyena speled), bear (Ursus speleus), horse (Equus 
caballus), ox, deer, wolf, fox—in-short, the usual cave osseous remains of 
extinct, together with bones of pigs, sheep, and other recent animals, some 
identical with those which still inhabit the district. There also were found 
bones of fish, and dorsal spines of a species of ray. The elevation of this 
cave is upwards of 100 feet above the sea, and some of the bones in this 
collection show the same teeth-marks described by Buckland on those of 
the Kirkdale caves. Several have been gnawed by larger animals, and 
some bear marks as of the teeth of a rodent, some rat perhaps. 

«The circumstances of this cave in general, and of some of the bones in 
particular, did not confirm, but rather contradict, the conjecture that it 
had once been a den of hyenas, by whom they were collected together. 
Hyzenas’ bones lay about precisely in the same state as the others. The 
whole seemed to have been forcibly carried into the cave by the action of 
water. Some of the bones were wedged into the fissures of the rock at 
the cave’s ends, just as pieces of drift-wood and wreck are observed to be 
on the shore beneath. ven had the dung of the hyena been observed 
here, as in those caves described in the ‘ Reliquie Diluviane,’ and in Dr. 
Falconer’s report of the ossiferous caverns in Italy, the inference would 
have been hasty, and probably altogether wrong, that it therefore had 
been an hyena’s den. The hyena is by nature a bone- rather than a 
flesh-eating animal: the dung-balls consequently are almost entirely 
formed of phosphate of lime, and are so hard that they resist the tempo- 
rary action of water almost as well as the bones themselves—perhaps, 
being round, even better. Moreover, if these cave-dwellers, which live in 
pairs and are not gregarious, follow the habits of canine animals, and of 
the badgers and foxes which abound still in this part of the kingdom, 
they would instinctively have sought external; and even distant places. 
Dogs are notorious for their cleanly habits in respect to their sleeping- 
places, when they are not chained up; and badgers retire to some place 
distant from their holes, and to that same place every night, till at length 
the ground even glitters im the sunshine with the elytra of the beetles, 
chiefly the Scarabeus stercorarius, which in summer-time forms their prin- 
cipal food, as earth-worms do in the winter. 

“'The impression of the writer of this notice is, that all these ancient 
bones were drifted into the cave by the force of water, after they had been 
gnawed and mumbled outside of it, and that the dung-balls of the hyena 
were drifted in with them. Careful observers will have noticed how 
water-floods collect together into the still places animal remains and light 
substances at all times. 
pus We may account for the filling of these caverns in more ways than one. 
There are in this neighbourhood, and in other parts of England, at this 
moment, certain holes and natural openings in the earth; particularly 
where the mountain-limestone lies near the surface; into which rain-tor- 
rents discharge themselves, thick with the red mud, and with lighter sub- 
stances and small stones, which they bear along down the watercourses 
leading to them. These watercourses formed many of the ancient byeroads 
and lanes of the country. There is one so situated that has engaged the 
writer's attention in flood-time for more than twezty years; nor is the 


REVIEWS. 117 


eave yet filled to which it doubtless belongs, if we may judge from the fact 
that it still continues to receive the winter streams of muddy water. This 
hole is double, and each opening not more than a foot or eighteen inches 
in diameter. 
| “Or, again, there might have been anciently some lake in the vicinity 
| of this cave...to which these animals resorted nightly to quench their 
| thirst, and bathe their unwieldy bodies. On its shores many would perish, 
some from old age, some from weakness induced by long journeys, espe- 
cially in times of drought; the mud through which they had to struggle to 
| the life-giving wave would be too much for them; they would be ‘ stagged,’ 
to use the common term applied to horses and cattle so circumstanced in 
the lowlands of... Essex and elsewhere; some would become the prey of 
other animals. ... Then, when the lake became enlarged by winter floods 
...many of these bones might be forced into the cave, and so preserved. 

** At the time th7s cave was first discovered, geology had not so far pro- 
gressed as to suggest the probability of finding human remains, which 
therefore were not noticed if present: neither did any flint weapons here 
attract attention. 

“But when new opportunities of examining caves occur, as they are 
likely to do at Caldy Island, and at Lydstep, the examination should be 
eonducted with much care, and reported with the greatest fidelity. Every 
circumstance is worthy of note: human bones may be found deep 
beneath the stalagmitic floor, and surrounded with the bones of extinct 
animals; but if it is forgotten that man in rude times was accustomed to 
bury in such places, and the state of the soil and surface, whether dis- 
turbed or otherwise, be not considered, of course false inferences will be 
drawn. 

“As to the junction of Caldy with the mainland, it was distinctly re- 
membered by old labourers twenty years ago, that at very low tides carts 
used to cross from Giltar to St. Margaret’s ; which latter island was cons 
nected with Caldy in such a way as to be also reached by carts, if we may 
infer as much from the remains of a road there. 

“The vale of St. Florence too, it may be worth recording, appears to 
have recently undergone considerable changes of level. There is a place 
on the hill-side, halfway up that ancient estuary, still bearing the name of 
‘The Old Quay.’ 

** Let us look around us as we stand on the Castle Hill—or rather think 
what meets the eye of the mind from that elevation, at all points. How 
many remains of terrestrial vegetation are exposed to view by the equi- 
noctial tides all around the coast. They occur, for instance, at Caldy in 
front, at Portclew to the right-hand, and at Amroth to the left; indeed; 
everywhere stumps and prostrate limbs of the oak and fir, not even greatly 
altered in colour internally, are constantly to be seen; together with the 
remains of a thick growth of underwood, the hazel roots yet retaining 
about their forks the very nuts that grew upon the branches. These can- 
not be very old: the shore then must recently have sunk beneath the sea 
in which these stumps stand rooted. Have we here the vestiges of those 
ancient forests we were looking for just now, in which the animals roamed, 
whose bones filled the caves we are describing? And did such areas as 
Broadmoor, and Kingsmoor, and some of the water-levelled valleys that 
terminate in the sea hereabouts, form the beds of those great lakes and 
rivers we were just now inquiring after, in which they wallowed? One 
thing is certain, that in dredging among these stumps in the bay the horns 
of ancient deer, corresponding with those of the cave deposits, are found ; 
as in like manner the teeth of elephants are frequently dredged up on the 


118 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Norfolk coast ; whole trees, capable of being used for building purposes, 
are dug up in the adjoining valleys. 

say: ection here Leas itself: Have not the students of these pleis- 
tocene strata neglected a little too much the written documents still in pos- 
session of the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the country—the 
Welsh, or British, strictly so called? Of the Cantrev-y-Gwaelod there is 
not only a general tradition, but even the names of certain of the ‘ hun- 
dred overwhelmed towns and cities,’ of the harbours, and of the eminent 
men who governed the district, are still preserved in the poems and triads 
which have been collected and published in the ‘ Myvyrian Archaiology,’ 
and elsewhere... . All this then seems to suggest the possibility that the 
time when the animals lived here, whose bones are collected in the caves 
of Tenby, may not have been very long ago ; and though it is not intended 
to imply that these extinct animals lived here in England within the mo- 
dern historic period, much less at the time of the subsidence of the bay of 
Cardigan, about the year a.p. 500, yet may not those recent subsidences 
of the land be but the continuation of that action which separated us from 
the continent, and examples of the way in which that separation was last 
effected ? 

“A very brief notice of the second cave at Caldy, chiefly to record the 
discovery and site of it, will be sufficient, because when it was broken into 
for the first time, about two years ago, the quarrymen shovelled the sur- 
face bones, of which there were a good many, into the sea, and it shared 
after a little time the fate of the first cave, except that the floor is said to 
be still intact. A few bones and teeth have however been preserved. 

“Of the third cave, perhaps the particulars at this time will be most 
interesting, because it contained, with the remains of some of the carni- 
yvora mentioned above, flint implements of human construction. 

“This cave is situated on the mainland, and has a large open entrance 
always known to the inhabitants by the name of ‘the Oyle.’ It runs far 
into the rock, and is easily entered to the distance of forty-eight yards, 
and further with a little difficulty. It was first examimed archeologicaily, 
about twenty years ago, by Major Jervis, and a brother officer. Three 
celts were dug up, two of stone, and one of metal. During the present 
year a somewhat careful examination was made of the contents of the 
water-washed earth at the bottom of one of the chambers which consti- 
tute the cave, and which chambers alone contain any deposit, for the nar- 
row parts are bare to the rock. Teeth of the bear were obtained, with a 
great quantity of the bones of recent animals. Here also were fish-bones, 
mixed with such modern littoral shells as the Patella, Cardium, Purpurea, 
Capilla, Mytilus, Littorina littoralis, L. litorea, Natica monilifera, etc., 
most of which, it is worthy of notice, are also found in the raised beaches 
which appear at heights above the sea, from one hundred to two hundred 
feet or so, all round the adjacent coasts, and up the Bristol Channel. 

“ Tndiscriminately mixed with these remains, were found some smaller 
flint chips, and bolt or arrow-heads. 

“On the question then of the antiquity of man upon our earth, our 
caves here at Tenby give as yet no testimony, because though works of 
art have been found mixed with these bones of huge animals, the cave- 
ae ce been so disturbed, that their original position cannot be ascer- 

ained. 


REVIEWS. 119 


The Intellectual Observer. No.1. February. London : Groombridge 
and Sons, 1862. 


‘Recreative Science, the first of the popular serials on popular science, 
emanated from these publishers, and attained a large circulation. Some- 
what too juvenile in character, it could not have been expected long to 
maintain a stand against such higher flights as Mr. Hardwicke’s ‘ Popular 
Science Review.’ The ‘Intellectual Observer’ is ‘ Recreative Science’ 
sprung into manhood, and a vigorous forcible manhood too, ready and able 
to compete with any rival. 

We have a decided horror of popular (?) science—or rather that kind of 
trash which unfortunately goes by that name. We believe that real 
science is popular, is a household god whose presence is universally felt in 
this land, though its face is less often recognized than it might be. In the 
curtains that screen the light from our rooms, the carpets we tread on, the 
paper that lines our walls, in our coals, our furniture, in every object 
around us down to the handles of our doors and the pulleys of our window- 
blinds, the teachings of real science lie hid, although their effects add un- 
ceasingly to the pleasures of life. The able writer—editor, we presume 
too, although his name does not appear as such upon the work—Mr. Shir- 
ley Hibbert, opens the volume with a survey of last year’s work. Messrs. 
McGawley, Cobbold, Thos. Wright, Couch, Gosse, Slack, Humphreys, 
and Webb follow with excellent papers: a staff of good quality for popu- 
a ead work, and able to it well if they work sincerely, as they ought 
to do. 


The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By John Timbs, F.S.A. 
London: Lockwood & Co., 1862. 


A small book of 288 small pages in very small type, full of information 
gleaned from at least double that number of sources, some of which are 
acknowledged; some—the best sometimes—not so. Some critics have 
found fault with Mr. Timbs for putting in extracts just as he took them. 
We do not. At least it is honest, when the title of the work is given; it 
is useful, because we can go to the source itself for more information if we 
want it, which is better than wasting one’s time in wondering where we 
have read the matter before, as we do after perusing hundreds of the mo- 
dern short cooked-up notices of other people’s labours so generally in 
vogue. We would add the wish rather that the date of the publication 
should be also given. Mr. Timbs, at any rate, knows good from bad— 
which is more than most compilers do—and so, if his book be a book of 
selections, we can recommend it as having very much that is useful in it. 


Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Geology of parts of Oxfordshire and 
Berkshire. (Sheet 13.) By Edward Hull and W. Whitaker. 

Geology of parts of Berkshire and Hampshire. (Sheet 12.) By H. W. 
Bristow and W. Whitaker. London: Longman and Co., 1852. 


The numerous splendid geological maps and sections which the Govern- 
ment Surveyors have already produced, show the perseverance and energy 
of that small but talented staff, and testifies to the ability with which they 
are directed. But there are many other ways, besides in the execution of 
their regular duties, that the Survey officers are benefiting the students 
of our science. The museum in Jermyn Street is being admirably arranged 
by Mr. Ktheredge on a plan at once effective and novel,—that of marking, 
by placing them on differently coloured tablets, the characteristic fossils 


120 THE GEOLOGIST. 


of each stratum. The collection is, as our readers well know, arranged on 
a stratigraphical plan; and by the use of coloured tablets, in walking past 
cases we see at a glance the fossils we ought to find in any ordinary lo- 
cality of every geological formation. To the student this is a facility of 
the highest value, and enables him, whether studying for a class or pre- 
paring for a full excursion, to learn with certainty and ease the essentially 
typical fossils of every stratigraphical group or of the district he is visiting. 

Not a less happy idea was it to illustrate or rather to explain the map- 
sheets of the Survey, by short memoirs of the geology of the dis- 
tricts they represent. Thus, the fluvio-marine beds of the Isle of Wight 
have been deseribed by Edward Forbes; the country round Chelten- 
ham, by Mr. Hull; parts of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, by Profes- 
sor Ramsay ; the South Staffordshire Coal-field, by Mr. Jukes; the War- 
wickshire Coal-field, by Mr. Howell; the country round Woodstock, the 
country round Prescot, in Lancashire, parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, 
and the Wigan Coal-field, by Mr. Hull; part of Leicestershire, and parts of 
Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, by Mr. Aveline. The West Indian 
surveyors have followed this excellent example, and we have had a me- 
moir on the geology of Trinidad, by Messrs. Wall and Sawkins. 

Two others just issued are before us, ‘The Geology of Parts of Oxford- 
shire and Berkshire (Sheet 13),’ by Messrs. Hull and Whitaker; and ‘The 
Geology of Parts of Berkshire and Hampshire (Sheet 12), by Messrs. 
Bristow and Whitaker. 

The Geologists’ Association are about to take again their summer ex- 
cursions: how admirably instructive it would be to take one of those geo- 
logical spots in Berkshire or Hampshire, which Mr. Bristow so faithfully 
and accurately describes in this little eightpenny Memoir; and with the 
geological map of the district, Mr. Bristow’s descriptions of the sections 
and other exposures of the strata, of their order, sequence, and mineral 
characters, and Mr. Ktheredge’s lists of fossils, how much more instruction - 
would be got out of some of those pleasant holidays than can ever be at- 
tainable under the best desultory leadership ! 

In Mr. Hull’s ‘ Oxfordshire’ a small coloured geological map is inserted, 
reduced by photography from the larger Ordnance sheet, so that we have 
in it map and text for a week’s good geological labour. In Mr. Bristow’s 
Memoir, the cretaceous rocks and tertiaries from the Eocene of Woolwich 
and Reading to the alluvium of the Kennet, is treated in a masterly man- 
ner, and illustrated by well selected woodeuts. The cretaceous deposits 
and tertiaries, as also the oolitic series, form the topics of Mr. Hull’s 
‘Memoir on Oxfordshire and Berkshire,’ and, we need scarcely say, are 
treated in an equally able manner. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


APRIL 1862. 


SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 


It would be obviously inappropriate to discuss in the pages of the 
‘Geologist’ the theories propounded in Dr. Pouchet’s celebrated 
work,* with respect to the heterogenetic production of beings of 
simple organization from inorganic particles; but as the learned 
author has devoted the whole of his sixth chapter, comprising sixty- 
seven octavo pages, to the discussion of the “ geological proofs” on 
which he has based his theory, we cannot avoid offering to our readers 
a slight sketch of the arguments M. Pouchet so eloquently pro- 
pounds. 

His theory is thus stated :—At various epochs, of which no chro- 
nology can offer an idea, inert matter has been formed into organized 
beings, without the aid of any pre-existent organism. This, he says, 
is a natural consequence of geology, which none will dispute. He 
further deduces that there has been, subsequent to this first act of 
ereation, other generations, and that perhaps at the present day new 
Species are being called into existence. Ifa Supreme Being, who 
manifests His unity over every portion of the globe, has eternally and 
universally presided over all the phenomena which take place on its 
surface; and if it has been His pleasure to people the earth with 
tribes of plants and animals which have succeeded on it, why may He 
not be repeating at the present day that which He has already done 
during past times? As P. Gorini has said, spontaneous generation 


* “Tétérogénie, ou Traité des Générations spontanées, basé sur l’expérimentation ; par 
le docteur Felix A. Pouchet.’ 8vo. Paris. 
VOWG Ve. R 


122 TILE GEOLOGIST. 


is not a more marvellous phenomenon than ordinary reproduction ; 
and M. Pouchet cannot conceive why it is regarded as such an extra- 
ordinary act. Nature is not abandoned to the disorder of chance; 
she is governed by harmonious laws, and each act which is aceom- 
plished in her depths is connected with the past and is lost in the 
future: each generation which appears is only the corollary of that 
which has preceded it (p. 461). 

He goes on confidently to affirm that ‘“‘ the theory of the formation 
of the earth is not at present the subject of any doubt on the part of 
geologists. It is evident that our planet has been originally an in- 
candescent mass, surrounded with an immense atmosphere of gas and 
vapour; and that, in cooling, it has endured all the physical or che- 
mical conditions which necessarily resulted from its change of state.” 

His argument goes on to say, that certain parts of the globe having 
been upheaved at different periods, each has separately originated a 
fauna peculiar to itself, the degree of perfection of which is in the 
ratio of the antiquity of the continent supporting it. Thus, the infe- 
riority of the Australian men arises, according to M. Pouchet, from 
the Australian continent having been upheaved later than the other 
parts of the world, and the men consequently being more modern, 
have not yet reached their summit of development, like the old races 
of Europe and Asia. The same argument applies to the marsupials 
of Australia, who are, so to speak, the embryo forms of the placental 
mammalia of the Old and New Worlds. This theory is almost the 
reverse of that adopted by many geologists, who speak of Australia 
as being a “belated” portion of the earth’s surface, isolated from 
the rest of the world at an early period, and bearing the emblems of 
a bygone Fauna of Cestracions and Trigonie, analogous to those of 
the old Oolitie period. 

Our readers will have seen that it is rather as a Biologist than as 
» Geologist that M. Pouchet has a chance of securing disciples in 
Mngland. Turning however to his researches on the means of pro- 
duction of animals from inorganic matter (heterogenesis), his facts 
and arguments seem insurmountable. We confess ourselves unable 
to detect any flaw in the chain of testimony which he brings for- 
ward, and regret that the nature of this periodical precludes us 
from offering some of his experiments in detail. All the objec- 
tions which were made by previous writers have been disposed of 
by M. Pouchet. The animals produced belong to the lowest forms 
of Aerita, and the flaws in the experiments of Schultze and Crosse 
have been carefully obviated. 


SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 1235 


We are anxious to remove the supposition that there is anything 
like absurdity in the physiological argument, however there may be 
in the geological deductions of our author. The facts recounted by 
him are only those which a pains-taking observer would collect, and 
the work is (fora Frenchman’s) singularly devoid of any imaginative 
flights. 

Hasty Biologists condemn the theories of M. Pouchet, without 
giving due weight to his arguments. Such writers will never 
range in the list of advocates of spontaneous generation, amongst 
whom M. Pouchet triumphantly quotes “ Anaxagoras, Leucippus, 
Democritus, Epicurus, Aristotle, Pliny, Lucretius, Diodorus Siculus, 
Kircher, Rondelet, Aldrovandus, Matthioli, Fabri, Bonanni, Burnet, 
Gassendi, Morison, Dillen, Buffon, Guéneau de Montbéliard, Need- 
ham, Priestley, Ingenhousz, Gleichen, Stenon, Baker, Wrisberg, Fay, 
Werner, O. F. Miller, Braum, Rudolphi, Bremser, Goeze, Nees 
von Esenbeck, Eschricht, Unger, Allen Thomson, De Lamétherie, 
Cabanis, Lavoisier, Lamarck, Saint-Amans, Turpin Desmoulins, 
Latreille, Bory St. Vincent, Dumas, Duges, Hudes-Deslongchamps, 
Gros, Tiedemann, Treviranus, Bauer, J. Miller, Burdach, Carus, 
Oken, Valentin, Dujardin, and A. Richard.” 

Pouchet remarks that the antagonists of spontaneous generation 
have always treated its partisans with a severity with which a just 
cause is never defended ; they have often represented the theories of 
spontaneous generation as the mere fruits of insanity ; nevertheless, 
the illustrious names who avow their belief in it merit a greater 
respect, and the opinions of men who have so much honoured science 
should be carefully examined before they receive so disdaiuful a re- 
probation (p. 5). 

Cheyreul has remarked that truth for all right-minded men, what- 
ever their position in life, is the most precious of all objects: for 
sooner or later it will triumph over error. Descartes wished to 
examine all scientific theories, even the most unlikely and the most 
false, “to the end,” he said, “that he should know their just value 
and guard against being deceived.” The same favour M. Pouchet 
implores; and he demands, as a right, that his work shall not be 
judged until after it has been read and considered. Professor Owen 
has told us, ‘“‘ If it be ever permitted to man to penetrate the mystery 
which enshrouds the origin of organic force in the wide-spread mud- 
beds of fresh and salt waters, it will be, most probably, by experiment 
and observation on the atoms which manifest the simplest conditions 
of life.... Whether an independent, free-moving, and assimilating 


121 THE GEOLOGIST. 


organism, of the grade of structure of a germ-cell, may not arise by a 
collocation of particles through the operation of a force analogous to 
that which originally formed the germ-cell in the ovarian stroma, is a 
question worthy all care and pains in its solution. Pouchet has con- 
tributed valuable evidence of such production, under external in- 


fluences, of species of Protozoa. With regard to the species of higher 


organisms, distinguishable as plants and animals, their origin is as 
yet only matter of speculation.” — Paleontology, 2nd ed., pp. 18 and 
441. 

In these liberal and advanced sentiments, we must cordially con- 
cur. We recommend our readers to examine M. Pouchet’s work 
carefully, and, if possible, to test his experiments over again. 
English minds too often exhibit an excessive reluctance to truths 
which on the Continent have been generally accepted. Trust- 
ing that this work may receive “a fair field and no favour,” we con- 
clude our remarks, with the hope that many more volumes of equal 
scientific importance may proceed from the gifted pen of the Director 
of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen. 


FURTHER NOTES ON THE GENUS CAINOTHERIUM. 
By Cuaries Carter Buaxe, Ese. 


The genus Cainotherium was founded by Bravard in the year 1835. 
Since his time it has received the following names :—Oyclognathus, 
Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 1835; Microtherium, Herm. von Meyer, 1837; 
Oplotheriwm and Plectognathus, Laizet and De Parieu, 1838; whilst 
the characteristically synthetic mind of De Blainville reunited it to 
the genus Anoplotherium, under the title of latecurvatum. 

Gervais* says it is probable that many species, and not one only, 
can be recognized amongst the remains which have been discovered, 
and that this conclusion has been admitted by all paleontologists 
who have studied these small pachyderms. 

Pomel} urges strongly the necessity of distinguishing many spe- 
cies among the Cainotheria, properly so called. He excludes from 
this genus the C. Courtoisi?, which he erects into atype apart (Hye- 
gulus). Gervais, on the contrary, gives merely to the genus Caino- 
therium a subgeneric value, subordinating it to Dichobune in his 
system. M. Pomel does not give any certain characters by which his 


five species can be distinguished. J translate his characters, such as 
they are :— 


* *Zoologie et Paléontol. Francaises,’ 4to, Paris, 1859, 2nd edition, p. 92. 
+ Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris, t. xxxiii. p. 7. 


ee 


BLAKE—ON THE GENUS CAINOTHERIUM. 125 


C. laticurvatum : head large, especially towards the frontals, with 
a straight profile as far as under the orbits, depressed towards the 
fronto-parietal surface. 

C. commune (= C. latecurvatum, De Blainville): smaller; head 
more lengthened, and more elevated towards the parietal region. 

C. elegans : of the size of the preceding: head still more convex 
towards the fronto-parietal suture: palatines more sloping: limbs 
more slender. 

C. metapiwin (? metopium, from petrwmov, forehead) : size of the pre- 
ceding ; head more concave in front of the orbits; forehead conse- 
quently more elevated; zygomatic arch very short. 

C. gracile : one- third smaller ; mandibular bone very narrow, sym- 
physis shorter, more projecting beneath ; limb-bones very short. 

I have recently made a careful examination of the Cainotheria in 
the British Museum, where M. Bravard’s and M. Pomel’s specimens 
are deposited, with a view to detect any specific differences which 
might be visible. I have not had the opportunity of knowing on 
which specimens M. Pomel’s conclusions were founded. 1 merely 
record my conviction that the British Museum collection does not 
contain more than two species at most, the Cainotheriwm commune 
and C. metapiwm, if the specific distinction of the latter species 1s to be 
admitted. Some of the specimens in the British Museum collection 
are named C. majus by M. Pomel. Another, apparently not specifi- 
cally distinct from the C. commune, M. Brav ard terms C. lepthelicium. 
One of the Museum specimens, by t he degree of concavity or depres- 
sion of the preorbital space, may belong to the C. metapium of Pomel, 
but this is very doubtful. No dental distinction has been detected 
by me, even though aided by astrong lens. The few slight differences 
which otherwise exist are merely referable to age. The degree of 
backward inflection of the coronoid process of the jaw varies, so to a 
less extent do the proportions of the limb-bones, but not more so 
than between the skulls of musk-deer at various ages. 

The generic name MMicrotherium must clearly vive place to Caino- 
thertwm, which was invented two years earlier. Of the identity of 
the species there can be no doubt. The specimen of Microtheriwm 
Renggert in the British Museum, from the Miocene of Haslach, in 
Wurtemberg, being the right upper maxillary, with m 3 coming into 
place, is in no manner specifically distinct from the Cainotheria from 
Aller, in the same case. 

Whether the genus Hyegulus of Pomel rests upon a correct ap- 
preciation. of its generic value, may be much doubted. The mere 
fact of the scaphoid and cuboid bones being confluent would scarcely 
merit generic distinction, and the alleged deeper sculpturing of the 
hinder molarsin Hyegulus murinus is far from visible on M. Gervais’ 
plate. The teeth of Cainotheriwm Courtoisw might very well belong 
to the young of Cainotherium commune, before the molars have been 
abraded by use. The abrasion of the molars in some of the Museum 
specimens might lead a hasty species-maker to form several species. 

None but the practical worker can appreciate the difficulty of 


126 THE GEOLOGIST. 


identifying the lower jaws with the forms to which they belong. No 
specific dissimilarity m size or position of the teeth meeting each 
other has been noticed by me. None of the limb-bones can be iden- 
tified to belong to the same individuals as the crania or lower jaws. 

I give the characters of the genus from Gervais, and the synonyms 
according to my own views :— 

CAINOTHERIUM, Bravard. 

“Teeth in continuous series; certainly as molars [== premolars 
=) molars ss], four toes, of which the two median digits are the 
largest, and similar to each other; the two last very slender.’’— Ger- 
vais, loc. cit. 

1. CAINOTHERIUM coMMUNE, Brav. memoir on Cainotherium = 
following species:—C. laticurvatwm, Pomel, loc. cit. C. elegans, 
Pomel, f.c. CC. gracile, Pomel, 1. ec. C. leptorhynchum, Pomel, 
‘Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France,’ 1846, t. i. p. 369. 
CO. medium, Bray., l. ce. C. minimum, Brav., l.c. ™ ? Hyegulus col- 
lotarsus, Pomel, l.c. * ? Hyegulus murinus, Pomel, l. c. = C. Cour- 
toistt, Gervais. Oplotherium laticurvatum, Laizet and De Parieu. 
Oplotherium leptognathwm, Laizet and De Parieu. Microtheriwm 
Rienggert, H. v. Meyer. Microtherium concinnum, H. v. Meyer. 
Cainotherium majus, Pomel, MS.?  Cainotherium lepthelicium, 
Bravard, MS. ? 

2. CAINOTHERIUM METOPIUM, Pomel, 7. c. A very doubtful species. 
In British Museum P 

The problem of specific creation and extinction can be best worked 
out upon such genera as Cainotherium. Speculation might lead a 
Natural-Selectionist to imagine how the four-toed Cainotheria of the 
Miocene, by reason of their firmer footing in a muddy soil, might have 
been able to go deeper in a river in quest of food, and have supplanted 
and caused the extinction of the Dichobunes of the Eocene, who had 
only one small digit at the back of their foot, making three toes in all. 
The differences between, e.g. Cainotherium, Dichobune, Xiphodon, and 
Dichodon, and Aphelotherium, are such as we might suppose might be 
altered through the lapse of long generations. Whether such altera- 
tion was slow and gradual by Natural Selection or any similar process, 
or whether it was not rather due to a more rapid and sudden method 
of operation, is the problem which the latter half of the nineteenth 
century may perhaps solve by experiment, observation, or logical de- 
monstration. In the meanwhile, to those who bear in mind the Lin- 
nxean maxim, Omnis vera cognitio cognitione specifica innitatur,t the 
study of the minute differences of the Cainotheria affords an instruc- 
tive topie. 


IT have not scen any authentic specimens of these species. The C. Courtoisii of 
x whole ¢ Hype Ee pifikea r 1o¢] > 7 
Gervais appears not to be specifically distinct from some specimens of C. commune 
+ Linneé, * Species Plantarum,’ 8vo, Vindobone, 1764, p. 3. 


127 


SECTION OF THE LIAS CLAY IN A RAILWAY-CUTTING 
NEAR STOW-ON-THE WOLD. 


By tHe Rev. 8. Lucas, F.G.S. 


As Mr. E. Hull of the Geological Survey, in his ‘ Geology of the 
Country around Cheltenham’ (1857), p. 24, complains of the scarcity 
of sections of the Upper Lias in that district, and as a section in the 
Railway, near Oddington and Stow-on-the- Wold, exhibits a section 
of Liassic clays, which appear to me to belong to the upper series, I 
beg to offer you the following rough but accurate account of the bed 
there exposed. 

The list of fossils has been made with the assistance of a geolo- 
gical friend in London. 

I believe the section here described is not at the very top of the 
Lias, for on the hill-side on either side of the valley the Lias ascends 
considerably higher than at the railway-cutting. The cutting, which 
is in the parish of Mangersbury, is about twenty-five to thirty feet 

deep, and the section is as follows :— 


L- Clay - . ». » . 6 feet . There are no fossils im this bed. It has 
been probably mostly washed down from 
higher ground. 

wae Ferruginous Bed. 1 ft. 6 in. This is almost one compact mass of shells : 
Belemnites elongatus, Mill.; Ammonites 
hybrida, D’Orb.; A. Humphreysianus 
(young), Sow. ; A. Henleyi (young), Sow. ; 
A. annulatus (young), Sow.; Nautilus ; 
Trochus imbricatus, Sow.; T. cyclosto- 
ma (?), Quenst. ; Plewrotomaria anglica, 
Sow. (including P. Amalthez, Quenst.); P. 
Pallium, Sow.; Helicina (Rotella) ex- 
pansa, Sow. ; Turbo euomphalus, Quenst. ; 
Astarte; Unicardium cardioides, Phil. ; 
Pholadomya Murchisoniea,Sow.; Cucullea 
Muensteri(?), Quenst. ; Arca Muenster, 
Quenst.; A. elongata, Quenst.; Myacites 
TInassinus, Quenst.; M. elegans, Phil. ; 
M. tumidus (?), Mor. and Lyc.; WM. sp.; 
Myoconcha psilonoti (?), Quenst. ; Car- 
dium multicostatum (?), Quenst.; Mo- 
diola Scalprum, Soc.; Anomia; Gryphea 
incurva, Sow.; G. obliquata, Goldf. ; 
Ostrea ; Plicatula spinosa (and var.), 
Sow.; Avicula inequivalvis, Sow.; Perna 
(Crenatula) ventricosa, Sow.; Pecten 
sublevis, Sow.; Plagiostoma Hermanni, 
Goldf.; P.duplicatum, Sow.; Rhyncho- 

ANS nella rimosa, Sow. 

3. Stiff Blue Clay . dS feet . Containing an Ammonite (A. Henleyi), and 
only a few other fossils. 

4. Hard, slightly . 1 foot . A small Unicardium (U. verrucosum), is 

more ferruginous very plentiful in this bed, generally oc- 


and impervious curring as single valves. 


bed. 


128 THE GEOLOGIST. 


5. Stiff Blue Clay . 5 feet . With Ammonites Henleyi, Perna ventricosa, 
and Myacites. 
6. Hard stiff Blue Clay 12-14 ft. With Ammonites fimbriatus, A. margari- 
tatus, A. Henleyi, Perna ventricosa, and 
‘ small Pentacrinite. 
7. An irregular band of lime- Unicardiwn cardioides, Cardinea concinna, 


stone generally formed of Myacites tumidus (?), Modiola scalprum, 
a hea of shells Gervillia levis, Perna ventricosa, Lima 


(small), Ostrea (small), Pecten sublevis, 
Plagiostoma Hermann, Terebratula nu- 
mismalis, Rhynchonella furcillata, R. con- 
cinna, R. subconcinna, Pentacrinus. 


The upper shelly bed (No. 2) undulates ; the distance between the 
crest and the trough of the wave being about a hundred yards, and 
the depth of the trough about six feet. This 1s very much stained 
with oxide of iron. 

The clayey beds Nos. 3, 5, 6, have fossiliferous concretionary nodules, 
and are all very similar ; they contain but few fossils, and those mostly 
of the same species. Bed No. 7 is also stained with iron, but not so 
much so as bed No. 2. It is very irregular as to its composition ; 
the stony bed being often interrupted by coarse concretionary masses 
at some distance from each other. This bed I also found at Odding- 
ton, four miles from the railway-cutting ; and there it is only just be- 
neath the surface-soil, so that there must have been considerable 
denudation. 

I should think that the Upper Lias Clay is much thicker in this 
locality and at Chipping-Norton than is generally supposed. Mr. 
Bliss, the owner of the factory there, told me that he bored 500 feet 
without getting through the clay. This is where it crops from be- 
neath the Inferior Oolite. 

Though the beds above described may possibly belong to the 
Middle Lias, yet I think there is much evidence to the contrary, 
such as the close contiguity of the Inferior Oolite, especially the 
‘* passage-sands,”’ with the ferruginous ammonite-bed. At Odding- 
ton, about three miles from the cutting, these sands rest directly on 
bed No. 7 of the section. 


TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 
By T. Rupr Jonuzs, F.G.8. - 
Geologizing, with some friends, on the south coast of the Isle of 


Wight, a few summers since (1859), we noticed some puddles of 
rain-water in the clay talus of the Wealden Cliffs near Brook Point, 


and observed that, like other such surfaces, the partially dried clay 
beds of the diminished pools showed rain-prints, foot-tracks, trails, 
and the rings of broken bubbles. Amongst these various markings are 


convew trail-like lines (fig. 1), which at first appeared difficult to account 


JONES—TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 129 


for ; but, recollecting Mr. A. Hancock’s remarks on the so-called An- 
nelide tracks, published in the ‘Annals of Natural History,’ ord series, 
vol. ii. p. 443, plates 14-19, I looked carefully on the wetter parts of 
the clay, along the edges of the puddles, and soon saw little beetle- 
like insects boring into the clay, and apparently traversing such gal- 
leries, just beneath the surface, as the little narrow convex sinuous 
markings may be due to. One of these insects I enclosed alive inits 
clay habitat, but I could not afterwards find it, when I had the spe- 
cimen of surface-marked clay at home. The cut edges of the pieces 
of clay show the openings of the numerous little galleries (fig. 1 4). 
Some of them are close to the surface ; some are an eighth of an inch 
or more below: in the latter case, probably the roof of the gallery 
received coatings of mud after it was raised up, retaining its convexity. 


Fig. 1.—A piece of the dried clay bed of a pond in the Isle of Wight, 
showing the convex roofs of small galleries made by burrowing 
water-insects. 14, a portion of the cut edge, showing a section 
of some of the galleries, (Nat. size.) 


At some spots the roofs of the galleries were the only markings of 
the surfaces ; at other places the concave trails were most abundant. 
The origin of these was obscure; for the pools were too temporary 
to be the home of molluses or crustaceans ; insects or worms, there- 
fore, may have caused them. The Rev. Mr. Hislop showed me, not 
long since, a specimen of hard reddish shale (possibly of Triassic 
age) from Korhadi, Central India, on which one of the many superfi- 
cial long, narrow, hollow trails stopped short with what certainly ap- 
peared to be an insect, coated with muddy matter, and entangled, 
as it were, in the clay whilst ploughing its little furrow. 

In fig. 2, we have some faint rain-prints at one corner (a),—nume- 
rous small bubble-rings over a large portion of the surface,—several 
deep, long, concave trails all over the specimen,—three or four faint 
convex gallery-marks, and some footprints of birds. The latest bird- 
track shows three footprints, deeply marked on the bubbly surface, — 
probably aslightly depressed area remaining moist after the other 

VOL. V. 8 


130 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Fig. 2.—Another piece of dried clay, from the same pond, showing a long trail at a ; 
and other trails, 4, /; a bird’s footprints (c) treading in an old trail at 4, 4; a new 
gallery being formed at e subsequently to the bird’s impressions on the soft mud; /, 
old footprint of another bird under new gallery; g, orifice ; d, bubble-marks ; 2, 2, 2, 
rain-prints. (Nat. size.) 


part had become nearly dry.* In advance of these is a more faintly 

* This minutely-spotted surface reminds one of that portion of the woodent in 
plate 7, in vol. ii. of the ‘ Geologist,’ which is said to be “pitted with worm-holes in the 
sheltered hollows.” 


JONES—TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 131 


marked footprint, and that it was of earlier date is shown by one ot 
the gallery-marks passing athwart one of its toe-prints, whilst the 
other end of the gallery has been trodden in by the last foot-mark of 
the tirst-mentioned track. 

Specimens of sandstone showing the casts of similar convex and 
concave trails are common in some of the Wealden beds * and other 
thin-bedded rocks formed in shallow water; but the modifications are 
extremely numerous, and will require much careful observation before 
they are elucidated. Accurate drawings, at least, should be taken of 
trails and other surface-markings made by aquatic animals. Mr. A. 
Hancock’s published sketches (above referred to) of the gallery-tracks 
of minute crustaceans (Suleator arenarius and Kroeyera arenaria) 
that bore the sand of the sea-shore, are good examples of what is 
required of those who would assist the geologist to decipher the 
obscure tracks and trails (too often termed annelid-marks) by the 
light of nature. 

Mr. Poulett-Scrope, Mr. Strickland, Dr. Buckland, and Mr. Salter 
have published the results of some careful comparisons of recent 
and fossil tracks and trails; but have not figured the recent markings 
on which their conclusions rest. See Geol. Proceed., vol. i. p. 317 ; 
iv. pp. 16, 204; Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. x. p. 208; xu. p. 246; 
xii. p. 199, ete. In these instances, Fishes, Crustaceans, Molluscs, 
and Worms have been quoted as the probable agents. 

In his ‘ Report on the Agriculture of New York’ (‘ Natural History 
of New York,’ Part V.), vol. i. (1846), p. 68, etc., plates 14, 15, 16, 
Professor EH. Emmons describes and figures several so-called Lower 
Paleozoic “ annelid-tracks,”’ such as he has since referred to the trails 
of larval insects. : 

Some sagacious remarks on fossil trail-prints are made in Mr. James 
Hall’s ‘ Paleontology of New York,’ 1852, vol. i. p. 26, etc. ; and 
numerous figures of such and other surface-markings from the Silu- 
rian rocks of the State of New York are given in the plates 11 to 16 of 
that volume.+ Indeed, of the so-called Iucoids illustrated by plates 
1, 2, 3, 5, 52, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of that volume, there are some that 
have been referred by Mr. Salter to the work of Annelides. Mr. Hall 
says—“ As a fact in proof of the similarity of the trails of other animals 
to these supposed remains of Annelida, I may mention that the 
Nemapodia tenuissima of Emmons has been proved to be the trail ot 
some existing animal over the outer surface of the rock, removing the 
minute lichen which covers it, and discolouring the rock beneath.” — 
J. Hall, Paleont. New York, vol. ii. p. 32, note. 

An instance in which recent tracks have been figured in illustration 


* On the under-surface of a rippled sandstone shale from Stammerham, near Horsham, 
I have observed numerous small, thread-like cylinders of sandstone, forming an irregular 
reticulation, which must have been due to the fine sand, when moist, having entered 
horizontal galleries in a clay or mud beneath : after having hardened, the sand, on the 
removal of the clay, has remained in the form of delicate free cylindrical casts, attached 
by their ends to the under-surface of the slab. 

+ Notes by the late Prof. E. Forbes, on some of these figures, are appended by Mr. J. 
Hall, at page 37. 


132 THE GEOLOGIST. 


of fossil tracks with some good results, is to be tound in Prof. Em- 
mons’s ‘American Geology,’ part vi., 1857, chap. xvi, p. 185, ete. 
Referring to the fossil tracks found so abundantly in the sandstone 
of the Connecticut Valley, he says :—“ In the progress of discovery 
other imprints have come to light, differing in every respect from the 
preceding. Those in the first instance were regarded as fossil Ne- 
reites, Myrianthes, etc., or Annelids, whose surfaces, or exterior, 
possessed. a sufficient consistency to form an imprint upon a yielding 
surface. Most of these markings, however, are now referred to foot- 
or body-marks of Crustacea or Mollusca, which have been made in a 
manner similar to the trails of certain shell-fish, as they move over a 
soft bottom. Such trails are preserved upon the rocks ; but in addi- 
tion to these, there are many others which must be due to water- 
insects, or their larve. We may easily convince ourselves of the 
possibility of the preservation of footprints, or the trails of the bodies 
of larve, by the mspection of a pool of water which has stood a few 
days after a shower of rain. These pools, while drying, will leave 
frequently a smooth, glossy surface of indurated clay or mud, which 
will be marked by innumerable tortuous 
lines of different patterns, according to the 
character of the body and feet possessed by 
the animal which has travelled over this 
smooth impressible surface. 

“ As these recent trails are instructive as 
well as useful in explaining ancient pheno- 
mena of a similar kind, I propose to illus- 
trate their characters by the annexed figures 
of some of the more common form of trails 
which may be seen by the margins of drying 
pools of water during the summer season. 
Fig. 105 (fig. 3) is a copy of the imprints 
made by the larve of two different species 
of dipterous insects. It is, however, only 
of the larger that I can speak with cer- 
tainty ; for I have found in this trail, or by it, the dead larva. The 
darker spots which terminate the finer trail mark the places where 
is sei entered the mud. Frequently 

1e larger trail terminates in a hole in ees a) 
the mud also. Fig. 106 (fig. 4:) is copied Oe 
from another pattern, having lateral | (SS 
fringes. This resembles very closely the 
imprints which haye been referred to Ne- 
reites. Upon this surface, also, the im- 
pressions of rain-drops are perfectly pre- |s 
served. 

_ “An equally interesting kind of trail 
is exhibited in the margin (fig. 107), 
which was probably made by a water- 
insect, or one having legs (fig. 5). The first (fig. 165) were made by 


Fig. 3 (105, Emmons). 


Fig. 4 (106, Emmons). 


JONES —TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 133 


an apodous larva. This imprint (fig. 
107) was made upon an impressible 
surface, but sufficiently indurated to 
preserve the form and character of the 
trail. This trail, however, is gradually 
changed into one having the form ex- 
hibited in fig. 108 (fig.6). This fact is 
important, and should be remembered. 
The change in this instance is due to 
the change in the consistence of the 

mud itself. In the last figure it is copied Hie yO Mie b amos) 
from that part of the trail which was made when the water still 
stood over it,and whea it was so liquid as to flow and fill up, in part, 
the imprint. The two patterns are so different that, if they were apart, 
they would very naturally be attributed to two quite different animals. 

“Tmprints upon the Taconic slates 
in Maine and New York do not dif- 
fer materially from the foregoing. 
So, also, those upon shales belong- 
ing to the Ontario division, near 
Utica, which I was the first to point 
out, and which are figured in Mr. 
Hall’s second volume of Palonto- 
logy,* appear to have been made by 
water-insects ; at least, they do not Risa seo 
differ very much, in character and Big soe 0 uamen. 
form, from many which we may find in drying pools after our summer 
showers. 

“ Fig. 108 is not very unlike a figure which J gave several years ago 
in ny ‘ Report of the Geology of New York,’ and which were made 
upon the green slates belonging to the Taconic system in Maine, 
and slates, too, which are among the oldest sediments in the world. 

“Tf the foregoing remarks and observations are true, it proves that 
the soft fragile larve of insects existed in the earliest periods, or at 
the time when the oldest sediments were deposited.” 

Going on to speak of the fossil tracks and trails in the Connecticut 
sandstones at Turner’s Falls, Professor Emmons expresses a belief 
that the tracked surfaces formed a border around and outside the 
main body of the sediment, and were due to the overflow of rivers 
and ponds after heavy rain-falls. ‘‘ This view of the subject,” he says, 
“is sustained by what takes place in every great freshet in the rivers 
of the Southern States. Here the large rivers and their tributaries, 
such as the Oronoko, Dan, and Cape Fear, overflow their banks, and 
spread over the meadows or low ground, upon which a sediment two 
or three inches thick is thrown down. The river, on subsiding, leaves 
the deposit to dry gradually; and, in the meantime, it will be tracked 
by insects, worms, frogs, lizards, rats, and birds, all of which will 


* “Palont. New York State,’ vol. ii. pl. 18, fig. 2: similar to those figured in Em- 
mons’s ‘ Agricult. New York,’ vol. i. pl. 15, fig. 3, and pl. 16, fig. 3. 


134 THE GEOLOGIST. 


leave their peculiar imprints. While the mud is drying, it separates 
and produces what are termed sun-cracks, which are always present 
in the layer which has preserved foot-marks in the sandstones of the 
Connecticut Valley.” 

That the footprints and rain-marks of the Connecticut sandstone 
might have been made on the banks of a river or estuary, Sir C. Lyell 
has shown in his ‘ Travels in North America,’ vol. i. p. 254, and vol. 11. 
p- 168; ‘ Principles of Geology,’ 9th edit., p. 203; ‘Anniv. Address 
to the Geol. Society, 1851 ;’ ‘ Manual of Geology,’ 5th edit., pp. 348, 
384; and ‘ Notices of the Royal Institution,’ vol.i.p.57. Dr. James 
Deane* (who first drew the attention of naturalists to these fossils) 
aud Prof. Hitchcock,t in America, have explained and illustrated 
these vestigial phenomena with great labour and skill. 

In Britain we have a plentiful supply of equally obscure phenomena 
in the Arenicolites, Scolites, Helminthites, and Vermiculites of the 
Silurian, Carboniferous, and other rocks, and in the foot-tracks in the 
Millstone-grit of Tintwistle, in the Coal-measures of Dalkeith and 
the Forest of Deane, in the Permian sandstones of Corneockle Muir, 
Dumfriesshire, and other places, in the New Red Sandstone of An- 
nandale, in the New Red deposits of Cheshire and Warwickshire, in 
manifold markings on the Forest-marble, and in the great trifid foot- 
marks and other prints in the Wealden of Sussex. That these great 
trifid footprints, the casts of which were found by Mr. EH. Tag- 
gartt and Mr. Beckles,§ and carefully described by the latter, should 
prove to have been made by the three-toed Iguanodon is not unlikely, 


Fig. 7. 


* “Boston Journ. Natural History Soc.,’ vol. v. p. 282. ‘Mem. Americ. Acad. Arts 
and Sc.,’ new series, vol. iv. p. 209 (9 plates). ‘Journ. Acad. Nat. Scienc., Philadel- 
phia,’ 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 71; vol. iii. p. 173.‘ Silliman’s Journal,’ vol. xlv. p. 178; 
vol. xlvi. p. 73; xvii. p. 292; xlvili. p. 158; xlix. p. 213; new series, vol. iii. p. 75 ; 
¥ D. a “Ichnographs from the Sandstone of Connecticut River,’ 1861, Boston (46 
plates.) 
| 7; “Memoirs American Academy,’ new series, vol. iil. p- 129. ‘Boston Journ. Nat. 
Bist. Soe.,? vol. viltp. D1. Elementary Geology,’ new edit., 1860, p. 181. ‘ Report 
on the Geology of Massachusetts,’ p. 477, ete. ‘Geology of the Globe,’ p- 98. * Silli- 
man’s Journal,’ vol. i. p. 105; vi. pp. 1, 201; vii. p- 1; xxix. p- 807; xxxi. p. 174; 
xxx. p. 174; xlvil. p. 292; 2nd series, iv. p. 46. 

t Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. ii. p- 267. 


§ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vii. p. 117; viii. p- 396; and x. p. 456, pl. 19. 


PLATE VII. 


SLAB from the UPPER 


‘arm, near Ci 


rtion of the Underside of a 


HASTINGS 


JONES—TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 135 


though they may have been due to birds. I may mention, that a 
friend in India (Mr. R. N. Mantell, since deceased) described to me 
in a letter, some large, broad, trifid markings that he saw on the sand- 
banks of the Ganges; they were of this shape (fig. 7), shallow, and 
with a well-definededge. Tracing 
the track to where the sand was 
wet, he found them take the un- 
mistakeable and unpretending 
shape of ordinary bird-tracks (fig. 
8); “the sole and sufficient rea- 
son,” said he, “of their gross ex- 
aggeration was the action of the Mig. 8. 

wind on the fine dry sand.” Trying prints of his own hand, he saw 
them slowly become augmented into broad caricatures of a hand-print 
by the same natural process. 

On the figured slab of Wealden rock, from the Upper Hastings 
Series, near Cuckfield, Sussex (Pl. VII.), we have sun-cracks, raised 
gallery-markings, and many obscure trails, some corrugated, some 
smooth. It is possible that, as a friend has suggested to me, some of 
these may be the marks of roots of aquatic plants; but there is no 
direct evidence on the subject: Root-like markings, however, small, 
vertical, and numerous, occur abundantly in the Hastings sand-rock, 
as pointed out to me by my friend Mr. J. Morris (see fig. 9). 

During the autumn of the same year as that in which I collected 
the recent trail-marked mud in the Isle of Wight, I was in the Weald 
of Kent, and, examining a brick-field, I saw a pond lessened b 
drought, and on its mud were prints of a dog’s feet, small hollow 
trails, and convex galleries, such as those before noticed (fig. 10). 
The roofs of some of these last were so thin they were split, and in 
some cases removed. Besides the markings above mentioned, the dry- 
ing clay had another interesting feature, namely, a partial coating of 
minute globular bodies (fig. 10 a), mostly lying closely packed in single 
layer, but sometimes crowded irregularly, and occasionally scattered 
about loosely. These are of the same colour as the clay, and are 
probably the ova of the Boat-fly (Wotonecta), thinly coated with clay ; 
and their interest hes in the fact that in Mexico allied insects are 
known to lay a profusion of large ova in the Lake of Tezcuco, and 
that there they become petrified into an oolite. The fact has been 
described by M. Virlet d’Aoust, in the ‘ Bulletin de la Soe. Géol. de 
France,’ 2e Sér., vol. xv. p. 200, etc., 1858, who, noticing the oolitic 
structure of the recent limestone on the margin of the salt-water 
lake of Tezcuco, near Mexico,* learnt from Mr. J. C. Bowring, the 
manager of the salt-works there, that the oolitic granules were nothing 
more than the eges of certain insects, encrusted and cemented toge- 
ther by the calcareous sediment of the lake. The eggs, too, being 
atiached by little stalks or pedicels, are the more readily coated with 
the lime all over, and keep their relative position the more firmly. 


* See the memoir for some interesting information on the relationships of the great 
freshwater and salt lakes of the Mexican plateau ; also, HE. B. Tylor’s ‘ Anahuae,’ 1859. 


136 THE GEOLOGIST, 


These ova are deposited, according to M. 
Guérin-Méneville, by Hemipterous (Noto- 
nectid) insects; the most abundant being the 
Corixa femorata ; the other (which lays the 
larger eggs) being the Notonecta untfasciata. 
They are said to fly about the water in my- 
riads, and occasionally plunge below the sur- 
face to the depth of several feet, there de- 
positing the eggs. The Indians collect the 
egos, by placing bundles of reeds in the 
water, which in twelve or fifteen days get 
covered with millions of ova ; these they dry 
for an hour or two, and remove from the 
rushes, and sell as an article of food.* 

M. Virlet d’Aoust remarks that probably 
an analogous origin of oolite has existed in 
all geological epochs; and he points out — 
some of the conditions of certain oolites 
that favour this view,—indeed, he seems to 
think that nearly, if not quite, all oolites, 
calcareous and ferruginous, have been formed 
in this way. 

The oolitic travertine of Tezcuco is also 
described by Mr. E. B. Tylor, in the inte- 
resting narrative of his travels in Mexico, 
entitled ‘Anahuac; or, Mexico and the 
Mexicans, Ancient and Modern,’ 1859, al- 
ready reviewed in the ‘ Geologist.’ At page 
156, he says :— 

“When I look through my notes about 
Tezcuco, I do not find much more to men- 
tion, except that a favourite dish here con- 
sists of flies’ eggs fried. These eggs are de- 
posited at the edge of the lake, and the In- 
dians fish them out and sell them in the 
market-place. So large is the quantity of 
these eggs, that at a spot where a little 
stream deposits carbonate of lime, a pecu- 
liar kind of travertine is forming, which 
consists of masses of them imbedded in the 
calcareous deposit. The flies which pro- 
duce these eggs are called by the Mexicans 
‘axayacatl,’ or ‘water-face.’ There was a 
eclebrated Aztee king who was called Axayac 
dicated in the pieture-writings by a drawing 


Q 


ig. 9.—Piece of white Hastings 
Sand, from the East Cliff, Has- 
tings, showing long linear ver- 
tical holes (4, c), in section ; a 
surface. (Nat. size.) 


atl; and his name is in- 
of a man’s face covered 


¥ reve WD ro : eget : ‘ 
M. Virlet d Aoust gives much interesting information about this substance (termed 
Haoutl), in the culinary and antiquarian points of view. See also a notice by M. Guérin- 


Meneville, translated in the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.,’ ser. 3 
+ See also, ‘Geologist,’ Vol. IT. p- 738. 


, Vol. ii. p. 313. 


JONES—TRACKS, TRAILS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 137 


The eggs themselves are sold in cakes in the market, 
pounded and cooked, and also in lumps aw naturel, forming a sub- 


with water. 


a 
ZY 


| ae - 


ha 


fafe* 


Fig. 10.—A piece of the dried clay bed of a pond in Kent. a, a, ova of boat-flies (?) ; 
b, 6', 5", galleries, with raised roofs, made by water-insects ; c, c, furrow, made by 
a water-insect, crossing the footprint (z) at d@; at e the furrow enters a gallery, of 
which the roof has been broken; at fit becomes a tunnel or gallery, with convex roof, 


such as seen also at 4, 6; g,g, small galleries; h, h, furrows; 7, 2, holes; /%, &, shell 
of a Limneus ; m, m, a furrow-track. 


stance like the roe ofa fish. This is known by the characteristic 
name of ‘ alhuauhtl,’ that is, ‘ water-wheat.’ ”’ 


The occurrence of the eggs of insects in the Mexican travertine, 
VOL. V. 


T 


138 THE GEOLOGIST. 


to which they add a by no means inconsiderable bulk, certainly sup- 
port, to some extent, M. Virlet d’Aoust’s hypothesis of the origin of 
organically formed oolite by means of ova, if not always due to insects’ 
eggs; and the entanglement of similar eggs in the clay of ponds also 
shows how insects may have exercised an agency, however slight, in 
the formation of some other stratified deposits. If to these evidences 
of insectal agencies, we add the probable fact, that the surfaces of 
many shales of various geological ages bear the trails of insects, as 
intimated above, pages 129 and 131, we have stronger proofs than 
we had heretofore of the wide-spread and long-continued existence of 
Insects in past ages of the world. : 

To get better and clearer notions, we want more carefully observed 
and recorded facts than we have hitherto had at command. Let us 
get good observations on the crawhng and burrowing creatures of 
the sea-shore and pool-sides, of sand- and mud-banks, and alluvial 
flats; let us get good dried specimens or good drawings for compa- 
rison ; and let us carefully collect and collate fossil surface-markinegs, 
noting what are real surfaces and what are casts on the lower sides 
of the lamine and strata, and we shall then be doing good work 
towards the elucidation of Zchnolites of all descriptions. 

Before concluding, I must offer an observation on the Climactich- 
nites Wilson, Logan,—a gigantic trail-like tract found in the Pots- 
dam Sandstone of Canada, and described and figured by Sir W. E. 
Logan, in the ‘ Canadian Naturalist and Geologist,’ 1860, vol. v. p.- 
279, etc. In this paper, Sir Wilham lucidly deseribes the probably 
littoral condition of the Potsdam Sandstone, extending for many 
miles along the old Laurentine Hills, and its evidences of tidal phe- 
nomena. The Climactichnites is associated at Perth,in Canada, with 
the Protichnites, tracks found also in other parts of the Potsdam 
Sandstone of Canada, and described by Logan and Owen in 1852, in the 
Geological Society’s Journal, vol. xiii. p. 199, etc., plates 6-l4a. Of 
the Canadian Protichnites, there are six different kinds or species, 
according to Prof. Owen; they are all of large size, from about three 
to ten inches broad, and are referred to Crustaceans, possibly of the 
Jimuloid type, that have crawled over the surface of the sand.* 
Protichnites of smaller size have been found in the Silurian rocks of 
Scotland, at Binks, Roxburghshire, by Prof. R. Harkness (‘ Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc.,’ vol. xii. p. 248, fig. 2); and another, from the 
Coal-measures of South Wales, has been figured and described by 
Mr. Salter, in the ‘ Memoirs of the Geol. Survey, ete.: Iron-ores of 
South Wales, 1861, p. 227, pl. 2, fig. 24. 

The Climactichnites is described as a trail about 62 inches broad; 
and it is not dissimilar, in its transverse bars, to fig. le of Mr. A. 
Hancock's plate (XTYV., see above, p. 181), illustrative of the natural 
gallery-track of the little sea-shore crustacean, Sulcator arenarius. I 
would suggest that the Climactichnital tracks were really infallen 
gallery-tracks, formed, like those of the Sulcator, by burrowing Crus- 


Simple narrow coneave trails, also, are not wanting in the Potsdam Sandstone of 
Beauharnois, Canada, 


PLATE VIII. 


WA a1 aa (All 


/ 
t Gy ihe Wo 


4, bo NA 
eat 4 egal if WN l 


A) 
Ne 
Wing ig ie nH a 
PP amt fy 
vl h in { Ril: my if 
“9 ae Hi Uf 
wy, 
A Bai - A i = 


hy. es 


gs 
var 
y RSS 


Mm HARE 
be) 4 


i 


REN 
= } 
oan LAK 


anit 

CUS 

i” 
Sj! 


“GF 


is 
= =& ) 


oe "4 


Lea a wt Aa 


THB ‘CHEESE GROTTO” OF ‘THR BIFEL, 


(From a Sketch by J. kK. Lee, F.G.S., of Caerleon. ] 


8, J. Mackie, F.G.S., del. 


THE CHEESE-GROTTO IN THE EIFEL. 139 


taceans, possibly some of the same animals as those that left the 
Protichnital trail-markings on the surfaces of the sandstone. 

The Climactichnites is also analogous, in respect to its transverse 
bars, to the Crassopodia Hmbletoni, Tate (‘ Geologist,’ vol. ii. p. 66, 
pl. 2, fig. 2; and ‘ Berwickshire Nat. Field-club Transact.,’ vol. iv. 
p- 104, pl. 1, fig. 2), which, according to Mr. A. Hancock’s views 
(Joc. cit., p. 456), would be an infallen gallery, probably made by a 
Trilobite belonging either to the genus Phillipsia or Griffithides. 

Trilobites, and those of large size, are present in some of the older 
paleozoic rocks of North America, not far from the geological horizon 
of the Potsdam Sandstone; and, although they do not appear to have 
been preserved in this littoral sandstone, yet there is the possibility 
of their having frequented the shallow waters of that old sea, just as 
the Trilobites of the Carboniferous period probably furrowed the 
Lower Carboniferous sands without being preserved therein. If, 
however, Limuloid animals made the trails above mentioned, we must 
remember that,according to Mr. W. H. Baily,* the so-called “ Limuli” 
of the Coal-period, or more properly the Bellinuri, are more closely 
allied to the Trilobite than to the Zamulus, having well-defined tho- 
racic segments ; and therefore probably true Limuli had nothing to do 
with the production of any of the Protichnital trails. Trilobital, 
Bellinucal, Amphipodal and other Crustaceans, with sea-worms and 
molluses, may have made most of the trails, runs, or tracks that we have 
to do with in the Paleozoic rocks, and even insects may have aided 
in some instances, as intimated by Mr. Emmons,—but we want much 
more information in nearly all cases. Nor are we better off as regards 
our knowledge of similar markings in the Secondary and Tertiary 
strata. It is hoped that the foregomg notes may suggest further 
research in the rignt direction. 


THE CHEESH-GROTTO OF BERTRICH-BADEN, 
IN THE EIFEL. 


The mountainous district known as the Eifel, or Hifel-Gebirge, in 
Rhenish- Prussia, is, as all geologists know, famous for the numerous 
well-preserved craters of extinct voleanos and for the lava-streams, 
scorie, trachyte, and basalt connected therewith. 

The English reader will find a short account of the tertiary and 
volcanic rocks of the Hifel in Lyell’s ‘Manual of Geology,’ chapter 
Xxxi.; and a good geological map of the Hifel and neighbouring dis- 
tricts is appended to a paper, by Sedgwick and Murchison, on the 
Rhenish Provinces, in the Transactions of the Geological Society, 
2nd series, vol. vi. part 2. In the Eifel there are two extensive 
areas, in which volcanic activity has been especially intense. One of 


* Journal Geol. Soc. Dublin, vol. viii. p. 89; and ‘Explanation of Sheet 137, Geol. 
Surv. Map Ireland,’ p. 18, figs. 3 and 4. . 


140 THE GEOLOGIST. 


these of irregular outline is crossed by the Rhine at Andernach. Its 
western and more important part is about three miles long and two 
broad. The Laacher See is well known as a lake occupying an old 
crater in this part of the country, not far from Andernach. This dis- 
trict was described and illustrated by Dr. 8. Hibbert, in 1853, in his 
‘History of the Extinct Volcanos of the Basin of Neuwied,’ ete. 
The other district, characterized by volcanic rocks and craters dis- 
persed over an area of about four miles by three, is at a short dis- 
tance to the south-west, and contains several large lake-craters, such 
as the Gemunder Maar, the Pulver Maar, the Meerfelder Maar, ete. 
One of the old lava-streams in this area is met with at Bertrich, on 
the Ees, a small river running into the Moselle half-way between 
Treves and Coblentz. Consisting of columnar basalt, and being per- 
forated by a natural aperture, this mass of voleanic rock presents the 
aspect of a basaltic colonnade, and has always attracted the attention 
of travellers, especially as the joints of the basalt, instead of taking 
a regular polygonal or angular shape, are more or less spheroidal, 
“so that a pillar is made up of a pile of balls, usually flattened ;’’* 
hence the grotto at Bertrich is called the Kasegrotte, or Cheese-cave. 
“The basalt is part of a lava-stream, from thirty to forty feet thick, 
which has proceeded from one of several volcanic craters still extant 
on the neighbouring hills; and, having run in the valley, it has 
since been partially destroyed and excavated by long-continued water- 
action. Mr. J. E. Lee has favoured us with a pencil sketch of this 
interesting Cheese-grotto, from which Plate VIII. has been engraved ; 
and, although the grotto is well known to geological students by the 
woodeut in Sir C. Lyell’s ‘ Manual,’ p. 386, yet we think that as 
the subglobular character of the basalt is very much better shown by 
our correspondent’s sketch than in the little woodcut alluded to, we 
shall be doing good service by producing it here. 

In connection with the Cheese-grotto, Sir Charles alludes to the 
occurrence and characters of globular lavas and trap-rocks, adducing 
particularly the globiform pitchstone of Chiaja di Luna, described and 
figured by Mr. Poulett Scrope, in his account of the Ponza Isles (Geol. 
Trans., 2nd ser. vol. 11.). This pitchstone has the globiform structure 
near its junction with prismatic trachyte; and itself shows a ten- 
dency to the columnar division; the columns, however, separating 
into large globes or ellipsoids, placed one upon another, and, when 
weathered, readily desquamating at a touch into numerous concentric 
coats, having a kind of onion-peel structure. Different degrees of 
the prismatic or columnar condition, passing into the concentric and 
nodular, are observable in many basaltic and trachytic lavas, as well 
as in older trap-rocks (diorites, etc.); and indeed granite not unfre- 
quently shows a tendency to split and exfoliate in a similar manner. 

The explanation of the columnar and nuclear structure is well 
given on Mr. P. Scrope’s ‘ Considerations on Volcanos,’ etc., 1825 
(an admirable work, now out of print, but about to be revived, we 
hope). In chapter 6, p. 184, etc., the divisionary structure assumed 

* Lyell’s Manual Geol. p. 387. | + Ibid. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 141 


by lava in its consolidation is fully discussed. In a lava when cool- 
ing there are centres of attraction more or less affecting all the crys- 
talline particles; and in a uniform mass cooling throughout alike, 
these centres would be equidistant and tie contractile force equal. 
“ Tn this case all the spheres of attraction would be equally similar 
in size and form, and would arrange themselves as closely as possible, 
that is, in the manner of the cells in a honeycomb, or as the circles 
in the figure below. 


“The fissures of retreat produced by the contractile force of all the 
spheres, acting contemporaneously, must evidently therefore divide 
the consolidated layer into hexagons, each straight fissure being tan- 
gential to the opposite spheres of attraction between which it is 
formed.” 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


On the Compositicn of a peculiar Substance from the Wallabies’ [Holes, 
River Murray. 

Str,—In a recent number of ‘The Geologist’ (February, 1862) ap- 
peared the description and a sketch of a Tertiary limestone on the River 
Murray, in Australia. In this limestone are a series of holes or warrens, 
inhabited by hosts of wallabies, kangaroo-rats, etc., and from these 
cavities there exudes a peculiar dark brown, sticky, odoriferous matter, in 
considerable quantities. This substance has been handed to me by 
Mr. Rupert Jones, F.G.S., for chemical examination. The result of my 
analysis is as follows :— 


Bitumen and petroleum, with débris of mosses ., 
pees ACPI NW INIT TICs eactan acieiia «nfo wie fsa colores Sepesbee > siaist agaist 22°49 
Phosphate of alumina, with a little oxide of iron and phosphate of lime 6°42 
Carbonate of lime 


142 THE GEOLOGIST. 


No uric acid, nor any other organic matter besides those named, is 
present. When treated with soda a slight trace of ammonia is evolved, 
which comes probably from the remains of mosses. The latter, whose 
weight may amount to about 4 or 5 per cent. of the whole, are in so per- 
fect a state of preservation that the teeth of the seed-caps and indenta- 
tions of the leaves, as well as the internal tissue of the same, are most dis- 
tinctly seen under the microscope. 

The bitumen belongs to the species known to mineralogists as Malthe. 
Tt dissolves in alcohol and in caustic soda, but is insoluble in water. When 
the whole mass is submitted to heat it swells and gives out much smoke, 
which has rather an agreeable odour. It is impregnated with a small 
quantity of petroleum, which causes it to stain paper like oil. 

The mineral matter, which amounts to nearly 60 per cent., is cemented 
together by the bitumen. 

It will be seen by what precedes that this peculiar substance is made up 
of natural hydrocarbons, which have cemented together a certain amount 
of mineral matter. It has nothing to do with the animals which infest 
the warrens, except perhaps that by boring into the rock they have given 
it a means of exit. 

Yours, etc., 


T. L. Puiprson. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL. SOCIETIES. 


Geotocicat Socrety oF Lonpon.—February 21.—Annual General 
Meeting.—Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S., in the chair. The Secretary read 
the Reports of the Council, of the Museum and Library Committee, and 
of the Auditors. The Society was shown to be in a satisfactory state, as 
to finances and the number of Fellows. The Wollaston Gold Medal was 
awarded to Mr. Robert A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., F.G.S8., for his long- 
continued and valuable researches in Geology, particularly into the ancient 
geographical and hydrographical conditions of the Western European area 
in the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic periods ; and also for his acute 
and judicious elaboration of the theory of the presence of Carboniferous 
rocks at a moderate depth beneath the south-east of England. The Wol- 
Jaston Donation-fund was given to Professor Oswald Heer, of Zurich, in 
recognition of his valuable labours in the elucidation of the Fossil Plants 
and Insects of the Tertiary strata of Switzerland and Croatia, and espe- 
cially of the Fossil Flora of Bovey-Tracey, in Devonshire. 

The Chairman next, having read a letter from the President, regretting 
his unavoidable absence in Italy, expressed his sense of the great services 
rendered to the Society since its foundation by Mr. Leonard Horner. He 
then proceeded to read an obituary notice of the late Dr. Fitton. Mr. W. 
W. Smyth, secretary, read obituary notices of the late Rev. J. S. Henslow, 
Mr. J. MacAdam, Mr. Eaton Hodgkinson, Sir C. Fellows, Prof. Necker, 
and others. Finally, Prof. Huxley, secretary, read an Address, the prin- 
cipal objects of which were—to urge upon Geologists and Palzontologists 
the necessity of reconsidering the logical basis of several of their most ge- 
nerally accepted conceptions, such as the doctrine of Geological Contem- 
poraneity, and the assumption that the fossiliferous rocks are coeval with 
the existence of life on the earth,—and to test the ordinary hypotheses of 
the progressive modification of living forms in time by positive evidence. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 143 


The Officers elected for the ensuing year are:— President: Prof. A. C. 
Ramsay. Vice-Presidents: Sir P.de M.G. Egerton ; Sir Charles Lyell; 
John Carrick Moore, Esq.; Prof. John Morris. Secretaries: Prof.'T. H. 
Huxley ; Warington W. Smyth, Esq. Foreign Secretary: W. J. Ha- 
miiton, Esq. Treasurer: Joseph Prestwich, Esq. Council: John J. 
Bigsby, M.D.; Sir Charles Bunbury ; Robert Chambers, Esq.; Sir P. de 
M. G. Egerton ; Earl of Inniskiillen; Hugh Falconer, M.D.; W. J. Ha- 
milton, Esq.; Leonard Horner, Esq.; Prof. T. H. Huxley; John Lub- 
bock, Esq.; Sir Charles Lyell; John Carrick Moore, Esq.; Edward 
Meryon, M.D.; Prof. John Morris; Sir R. I. Murchison; Robert W. 
MylIne, Esq.; Joseph Prestwich, Esq.; Prof. A.C. Ramsay; G. P. Scrope, 
Ksq.; Warington W. Smyth, Esq.; Alfred Tylor, Esq.; Rev. Thomas 
Wiltshire ; 8S. P. Woodward, Esq. 

February 26, 1862.—Prof. Ramsay, President, in the chair. 

Special General Meeting.—It was resolved that the annual contribu- 
tion to be paid by both Resident and Non-Resident Fellows elected after 
the 1st of March next shall be two pounds two shillings per annum; the 
composition for future annual contributions being twenty-one pounds. 

Ordinary Meeting.—The following communications were read :— 

1. “On the Drift containing Arctic Shells in the neighbourhood of Wol- 
verhampton.” By the Rev. W. Lister, F.G.S. In the parish of Bushbury, 
at the junction of the London and North-Western, the West Midland, and 
the Stour-Valley Railways, is a gravel, with clay, sand, and pebbles, rolled 
Liassic fossils, flints, pieces of coal and of wood, and more or less fragmen- 
tary shells of the following species (as determined by J. G. Jeffreys, Esq., 
F.R.S., F.G.5.):—Astarte arctica, Cardiwm echinatum, C. edule, Cyprina 
Islandica, Modiola modiolus, Tapes virginea, Tellina solidula, Venus 
striatula, Litorina squalida, Nassa reticulata, Purpura lapillus, and Tur- 
ritella communis. 'Vhe Astarte and the Litorina are not now found living 
in our seas. Similar fossil shells have been also found by the author at 
Oxley Manor, half a mile to the N.W.; by Mr. G. E. Roberts at Acleton, 
eight miles to the S.W.; and by Mr. Beckett elsewhere. Liassic fossils 
have also been found in the gravel at Compton Holloway and at Wight- 
wick (both in the parish of Tettenhall), and at Wolverhamptcen. 

2. “Ona Split Boulder in Little Cumbra, Western Isles.” By James 
Smith, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. The islands of Great and Little Cumbra 
have (like the west coast of Scotland) a cliff and terrace, indicating an ele- 
vation of about 40 feet above the present level of the sea, and the removal of 
at least 100 feet of rock (sandstone and trap); the sea at its present level 
having worn away the rock to the extent of only a small fraction of an inch. 
The terrace on the Little Cumbra has been moreover ground down and 
scratched by ice-action, the strie passing unobliterated under the present 
sea; avd on the terrace lies a split boulder, such as are known to fall from 
glaciers, and which the author thinks must also in this case have fallen 
from an escarpment of ice. 

3. “On the Ice-worn Rocks of Scotland.” By T. F. Jamieson, F.G.S. 
The author, first referring to the eroded surface of the rocks beneath the 
Drift-beds in Scotland, proceeded to show that the action of ice, and not 
that of torrents, could produce such markings, as he had observed in the 
-bed of a mountain-stream in Argyllsmre, down which had poured the tor- 
rent caused by the bursting of the reservoirs of the Crinan Canal. He then 
advanced reasons for considering that the erosion of the rocks in Scotland 
was due chiefly to land-ice and not to water-borne ice, bringing forward 
remarkable instances of ice-action on the glens and on the hill-sides at 
Loch Treig and Glen Spean, where moraines, blocs perchés, strie, roches 


144 THE GEOLOGIST. 


moutonnées, and boulders lifted above the parent-rocks indicate a northern 
direction for the great ice-stream from Loch Treig to the Spean, and then 
an eastern course on one hand up Loch Laggan, and a western, on the 
other, down the Spean. Up Glen Roy the ice had apparently passed 
north-eastwardly, over the watershed towards the Spey. In Knapdale, 
Argyllshire, similar evidence is obtained of a great ice-stream passing over 
hill and dale; here falling into the Sound of Jura. The author referred 
to Rink’s and Sutherland’s observations on the continental ice of Green- 
land as affording a probable solution of these phenomena c and, objecting 
to the hypothesis either of floating ice and of debacles being sufficient to 
account for the conditions observed, he thought that land-ice, moving from 
central plateaux downwards and outwards, has effected the extensive ero- 
sions referred to, both in Scotland and other northern regions, at a time 
when the land was at a much higher level than at present. This must 
have been followed by a deep submergence, to account for the stratified 
and shell-bearing drift-beds. 

March 5.—“ On the Glacial Origin of certain Lakes in Switzerland, 
Scotland, Sweden, and North America.” By A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S., Pre- 
sident of the Geological Society. The author first stated that in this me- 
moir he proposed to extend his theory of the glacier-origin of the smaller 
mountain-lakes of Wales and Switzerland (published in ‘ The Old Glaciers 
of North Wales’) to those greater lakes of Switzerland, which, tke the 
tarns above alluded to, lie in true rock-basins. Hethen explained a map, 
compiled from those of Charpentier, Morlot, and Mortillet, showing the 
ancient extension of the great Alpine glaciers across the Lowlands of 
Switzerland to the Jura, also over the area that surrounds the Lake of 
Constance, and on the South into the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. 
All the great lakes of Switzerland, and the lakes of Como, Lugano, and 
Maggiore, lie directly in the course of one or other of these great glaciers ; 
and, as shown by the soundings, and the levels of the rocks at their mouths 
or in the river-beds below, each of these lakes, like the smaller tarns of the 
Todten Sea and the lake at the Grimsel, was shown to lie in a true rock- 
basin. He then considered the question of the denudation of the Alpine 
and Miocene areas of Switzerland, and showed that none of the lakes lie 
in aboriginal undenuded synclinal hollows. Next, that they do not lie in 
areas of mere watery erosion. Neither running water nor the still water 
of lakes can scoop large hollow basins like those of the lakes, bounded on 
all sides by rocks. Running water may fill them up, but cannot excavate 
them. He next contended that they do not lie in lines of gaping fracture. 
A glance shows this with respect to such lakes as those of Geneva, Neu- 
chatel, and Constance; and, reasoning on the nature of the contortion of 
the strata of the Alps, he contended that, though fractures of the rocks 
must be common, they need not be gaping fractures. To produce such a 
mountain-chain, the strata are not wpheaved and stretched so as to produce 
open cracks ; on the contrary they are compressed laterally and crumpled 
up into smaller space, and the uppermost strata, that pressed heavily on 
the crumpled rocks now visible, would prevent the formation of wide open 
fractures below, these upper strata, as in North Wales, having, over a great 
part of the area, been mostly or altogether removed by denudation. 
Next, lakes of the rock-basin kind do not lie each in an area of special sub- 
sidence. If so, for instance, we should require one for the Todten See, one 
for the Grimsel, one for the ancient lake of the Kirchet, several at the foot 
of the Siedelhorn, many hundreds close together in Sutherlandshire, and 
thousands in North America. ; 

If then the lake-basins were formed by none of the above-named causes, 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 145 


the only other agent that has affected the country on a great scale is gla- 
cier ice. All the lakes lie directly in the courses of the ancient glaciers. 
The basin of the Lake of Geneva is 950 French feet deep near its eastern 
end, and was scooped out by the great glacier of the Rhone, the ice of 
which, from data supplied by Charpentier, was, as it issued from the valley, 
3,550 feet thick to the bottom of the lake. This great weight of ice ground 
out the hollow of the lake, which gradually shallows towards Geneva, 
where the glacier thinned and the grinding power was lessened. Where 
the same glacier abutted on the Jura, the ice-current was arrested, and it 
flowed to the N.E. and S.W.; and where the ice was thickest and heaviest 
above the Lake of Neuchatel, it ground out the hollow in which the lake 
hes. 

The lakes of Thun and Brienz lie in the course of the great Aar glacier, 
those of Zug and the Four Cantons in that of Altorf, the Lake of Zurich 
lies in that of the Linth, the Lake of Constance in the course of the pro- 
digious glacier of the Rhine Valleys, the numerous little rock-basin lakes 
near Ivrea in the line of the glacier of the Val d’Aosta, and those of Mag- 
giore, Lugano, and Como, in the courses of the two gigantic glacier-areas 
that drained the mountains between Monte Rosa and the Sondrio. 

The sizes of the lakes and their depths were then shown to be, in several 
cases, proportional to the magnitude of the glaciers that ground out the 
basins in which they lie, and the circumstance as to whether the pressure 
of ice was broadly diffused, or vertical as in narrow valleys. 

Finally, it was shown that rock-basins holding lakes are always exceed- 
ingly numerous in and characteristic of all countries that have been exten- 
sively glaciated. Lakes are comparatively few in the southern half of 
North America, but immediately south and north of the great lakes and 
the St. Lawrence, the whole country is moutonnée and striated, and is also 
covered with a prodigious number of rock-basins holding water. The same 
is the case in the North of Scotland, the whole area of which has been 
moulded by ice ; and east of the Scandinavian chain, in another intensely 
glaciated region, the country is covered by innumerable lakes. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


M. Melleville, the Vice-President of the Société Académique of Laon, 
has published an account in the ‘ Revue Archéologique’ of an object of 
human workmanship found in the lignites of that neighbourhood. 

Starting on the basis that man was contemporaneous with the great 
earnivora and herbivora, and that objects of his workmanship are found 
with their bones, he goes on to make out that the beds containing them 
differ from the diluvium as much in the materials of which they are formed 
as in the fossils they contain, and that they are more ancient than it as 
they are everywhere covered by it. Those deposits belong to that geolo- 
gical age, which immediately preceded the present era; whilst it is ad- 
mitted that the diluvium marks the commencement of the recent or his- 
toric period. The ultimate consequence he deduces from the published 
observations on this subject is, that there are two stone-ages—the first 
ante-historic, corresponding to the epoch of the formation of the lacustrine 
beds of the Somme, and characterized by large implements entirely cf 
flints chipped but never ground; the other by far more finished and vari- 
ous products, indicating a more advanced art and established relations 

OE. W. U 


146 THE GEOLOGIST. 


between the different tribes which at that period inhabited France. These 
premises he merely puts forward, reserving for a future occasion the dis- 
cussion which alone can establish their correctness. What he desires to 
do now is to show that the field of discovery as to the antiquity of the 
human race is at least open, and that this question, already so wide from 
the little we as yet know, seems likely to be spread still wider by such dis- 
coveries as that of which he gives the details. 

An object “ incontestably fashioned by the hand of man” has been found 
at a depth of 75 métres from the soil, in a perfectly virgin bed of the lig- 
nites or “cendres noires’”’ at Laon, the geological age of which goes back, 
as is known, to the earliest times of the Paris basin deposits. Not but 
that objects of modern production have been found in these very beds, 
and he cites particularly a flint ‘“ hache,” which was found fourteen years 
since at 25 feet under ground, in the middle even of the lignites quarried 
near the village of Lille, canton of Fere, department of Aisne. But these 
facts, besides being so rare, are capable, in general, of being explained by 
accidental causes of entombment, the lignites of the Laonnois and of the 
Soissonois lying ordinarily at the surface or only being covered by foreign 
deposits of no great thickness. This is not the case with the ash-bed of 
Montaigu, near Laon, whence the object in question comes. “ The ex- 
ceptional conditions of the bedding where it was found is precisely that 
which gives to this discovery a special interest, and perhaps a considerable 
value; and it is thus necessary to give here a slightly detailed description, 
and to make known the method of quarrying.” 

“‘The lignites worked for agricultural purposes near the village of 
Montaigu, four leagues north-east of Laon, occupy the foot of a Tertiary 
hill, constituted at its base of clays, amongst which these lignites are 
intercalated ; in the middle, of thick masses of sand, enclosing some beds 
of shells; and at the summit by newer clays superposed on thick beds of 
hard rock—the Calcaire grossier of geologists, which form the crown of 
the hill. The ‘ash-bed’ is quarried by means of subterranean galleries, 
which extend in different directions under the hill—the principal one be- 
ing driven into the centre of it for a considerable distance, its extremity 
not being less than 600 metres from the point where it opens on the 
valley. ‘This bed is about 2°30 métres thick, and is covered by another bed 
of marly and sandy clay, full of fossil shells peculiar to that age—Cyrena 
cuneiformis, Ostrea bellovacina, ete., and which serves for the roof or 
ceiling of the quarry. This roof is sustained by means of wooden shores 
placed under and across as the gallery extends; the head only of the gal- 
lery being left free for the work of extraction. The ‘ash-bed,’ atiacked 
at the foot, falls down into the space called the ‘chamber,’ detaching itself 
cleanly from the roof alluded to; and then the ‘ ashes’ are put into small 
waggons running on an iron tramway. These ‘waggons’ in their turn are 
pushed by men out of the quarry, and the ‘ash’ is discharged and made 
into a heap for burning before being sold for agriculture. In the month 
of August last year (1861) the workmen employed at the end of the prin- 
cipal gallery, in throwing down a block of ‘ashes,’ observed with sur- 
prise an object detach itself and roll to some distance. Struck with this 
incident, such as had never before happened to them, they hastened to 
search for it, and found a ball of moderate dimensions. But their astonish- 
ment was increased when on examining it they thought they recognized it 
as the work of man’s hand. They looked then to see exactly what place in 
strata it had occupied, and they are able to state that it did not come from 
the interior of the ‘ash,’ but that it was imbedded at its point of contact 
with the roof of the quarry, where it had left its impression indented. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 147 


Better judging than many other workmen who daily make similar dis- 
coveries without informing any one of them, these of Montaigu at once 
carried the object found to Dr. Lejeune, the proprietor of the ‘ash’ 
quarry, whose house was close by. It could not have fallen into better 
hands. At the first glance M. Lejeune saw that the ball was really of 
human workmanship, and he in his turn hastened to inform me of the cir- 
cumstances of the discovery, no similar occurrence to which, as I have 
said, has happened within the memory of the workmen. However, long 
before this discovery, the workmen of the quarry had told me they had 
many times found pieces of wood changed into stone (the wood which is 
found in the lignites is nearly always, as we know, transformed into silex) 
bearing the marks of human work. I regret greatly now not having asked 
to see these, but I did not hitherto believe in the possibility of such a 
fact. 

“T ought to add that no suspicion of deception can be entertained. The 
workmen who found the ball had never heard of M. Boucher de Perthes 
and his discoveries, nor of the high questions of archzology to which the 
presence of worked-flints deep in the earth have given rise. The ball of 
the ‘ash-bed’ of Montaigu carries also upon itself the mark of its own 
antiquity. It is easy to assure ourselves, on examining it with attention, 
that 1f it be permissible still to doubt whether its embedment dates back 
to the time when the bed was formed in which it was enclosed, it cannot 
be denied that its burial is ancient, and goes back toa period greatly re- 
mote from our own. The diameter of the ball is 6 centimetres, and it 
weighs 310 grammes, or about 10 ounces. It is of white chalk, and in 
this respect is distinguished from the stone-shot made use of for the ar- 
tillery of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These are constantly of 
sandstone or other hard and heavy rock. I have never seen one in chalk. 
Its form is imperfectly spherical, and its fracture unequal; it seems to 
have been fashioned with an instrument more blunt than cutting, from 
which one would suppose that the maker had only coarse and ineffec- 
tual tools. Three great splinters with sharp angles, announce also that it 
had remained during the working attached to the block of stone out of 
which it was made, and that it had been separated only after it was finished, 
by a blow, to which this kind of fracture is due. 

“The workmen declare, as I have said, that the ball before falling to the 
ground was placed between the ‘ash-bed’ and the shell-bed which covered 
it. Its examination confirms in every way this assertion. It is really 
penetrated over four-fifths of its height by a black bituminous colour, 
that merges towards the top into a yellow circle, and which is evidently 
due to the contact of the lgnite in which it had been for so long a time 
plunged. The upper part, which was in contact with the shell-bed, on the 
contrary has preserved its natural colour—the dull white of the chalk. 

“T may add, that this last part gives with acids a lively effervescence, 
characteristic of carbonates of lime, whilst the rest of the surface which is 
impregnated with the bituminous matter alluded to, remains nearly in- 
sensible to the action of these acids. As to the rock in which it was found, 
i can affirm that it is perfectly virgin, and presents no trace whatever of 
any ancient exploitation. The roof of the quarry was equally intact in 
this place, and one could see there neither fissure nor any other cavity by 
which we might suppose this ball could have dropped down from above 
through all the series of beds which separate it from the surface of the 

lain. 
f “From what we have said, it remains then at least certain, that an ob- 
ject, a ball of chalk, fashioned by the hands of man, has been found in the 


148 THE GEOLOGIST. 


stratum of ‘black ashes’ of the Laonnois, at a depth so considerable under 
the soil and under conditions of bedding such that it is impossible to com- 
prehend how and by what means it could have been introduced in recent 
times. Iam certainly amongst those who think that science has not yet 
said its last word about it. But from one fact, even so well established, 
I do not pretend to draw the extreme conclusion that man was con- 
temporary with the lignites of the Paris basin.... My sole object in 
writing this notice is to make known a discovery as curious as strange, 
whatever may be its bearing, without pretending to any mode of explana- 
tion. I content myself with giving it to science, and I shall wait before 
forming an opinion in this respect, for further discoveries to furnish me 
with the means of appreciating the value of this at Montaigu.”—MeEttz- 
VILLE, Vice-President of the Academie Society of Lahon. 

Such is M. Melleville’s account, and we consider his resolution wise in 
hesitating to date back the age of man to the lower tertiary period of the 
Paris basin without further confirmatory evidence. 

M. Omboni, in his paper on the Ancient Glaciers and “ terrain erratique”’ 
of Lombardy, lately published by the Milan Society,* has given numerous 
details of the different valleys which debouche in Lombardy between the 
Lake of Orta and Brescia and of the glacial deposits they contain. All 
these have been visited by him, and he has particularly examined with 
great care the traces left by the glaciers of their lower limits. He indicates 
clearly where the enormous masses of ice, after having been long encased 
in the valleys of the southern flanks of the Alps, spread out and melted in 
the plain, leaving in front of them their terminal moraines. His principal 
conclusions are, that, during the Pliocene age, the valley of the Po formed 
part of the Pliocene Sea when the marine fossiliferous rocks of Varese, 
Nese, San-Colombo, and Casteneddo were deposited. 

With the slow and gradual dislocation by which the Alps and the Apen- 
nines took their present forms, the valley of the Po became a great shallow 
gulf, when the most ancient of the quaternary rocks were formed, con- 
stituting the passage-beds from the Pliocene, and enclosing the bones of 
large quadrupeds. Then followed the commencement of the formation 
and the extension of the glaciers of the Alps in consequence of a cold and 
damp climate. This was the first part of the quaternary glacial epoch. 

Next, the glaciers occupied all the valleys of the Alps and the basins of 
the lakes as far as the points where they now are, Sesto-Calende, Porto, 
Mendrisio, Como, Lecco, Iseo, etc. Great torrents dispersed the materials 
brought by the glaciers and formed the “ancient alluvium,” which by de- 
grees advanced the land and diminished the extent of the gulf. The stones 
brought by the glaciers lose their polish, their groovings and strize become 
rounded and form part of the alluvium, while the large blocks are also 
cones by the action of water. This was the second part of the glacial 
epoch, 

The glaciers now extend still further, denuding the upper part of the 
alluvium and leaving on its lower part their terminal moraines, where we 
still find them. The production of alluvium still went on extending the 
land. This was the third part of the glacial epoch. 

_Then a change takes place—the climate becomes less cold. The glaciers 
diminish and slowly arrive at their present limits, and during this period 
of retreat form concentric moraines nearer the high Alps. The torrents 
wear away the moraines which they encounter and transport the material 
to various distances, forming the most superficial portion, called “recent 


* Atti della Soc. Nat, in Milano, 1861, t. iii., with a map of the ancient extension of 


the glaciers, 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 149 


alluvium.” The glaciers still occupied for a long time the deepest valleys, 
and prevented their being filled with alluvial deposits; then they melted, and 
the Lakes Maggiore, Como, and Lecco, Orta and Iseo were formed. This 
was the fourth and last part of the glacial epoch, which gradually merged 
into the present period. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


ConvVERSION OF CHALK INTO MarsBiE.—Gustav Rose has been making 
new experiments on the deportment of carbonate of lime at high tempera- 
tures, both with and without fluxes ;* and, from their results, he has arrived 
at the conclusion that rhombohedral carbonate of lime is never a direct 

roduct. 
: According to the experiments of Sir James Hall, made in 1804, this has 
been directly produced when chalk and compact limestone were exposed 
to a high temperature under great pressure. 

Hall’s experiment has therefore been repeated by MM. Rose and Sie- 
mans. A gun-barrel was charged with dry elutriated chalk, rammed into 
a compact mass, and the gun-barrel then hermetically sealed at both ends, 
and exposed to the heat of one of M. Siemans’ gas-furnaces. During the 
experiment the gun-barrel sprung, and in the crack there appeared a faint 
blue flame, evidently of carbonic oxide. The gun-barrel was then removed 
from the furnace, and on opening it the chalk was found converted into a 
light bluish-white coherent mass, slightly lustrous on the fracture, and with 
cracks running through the whole. The surface was covered with a snow- 
white, earthy, well-defined crust, and the cracks were lined with white 
earthy particles; these, as well as the crust, were composed of caustic lime. 
The compact mass, however, proved, on examination, to be unchanged 
in chemical properties; and in physical properties, though seemingly 
changed, when examined under the microscope, it showed the same small 
globules, and identically the same properties, as the unignited amorphous 
chalk. Although somewhat more coherent, the chalk was not materially 
altered, and in nowise converted into crystalline calcite. Another experi- 
ment was made with fragments of rhombohedral cale-spar, but was also in- 
terrupted by the rupture of the gun-barrel. 

M. Rose considers, from these experiments, that chalk or compact lime- 
stone cannot be converted into crystalline limestone or calc-spar by expo- 
sure to a high temperature in closed vessels; and, as a general fact, that 
rhombohedral carbonate of lime is not formed in the dry way. He also 
observes that, on comparing accurately the description of Hall’s experi- 
ments and Bucholz’s observations incidentally made in the production 
of caustic lime from chalk, probably they obtained results similar to his 
own, and that the slightly coherent, but otherwise unaltered mass, was er- 
roneously considered to be crystalline marble. But what is most singular 
is, that notwithstanding Hall’s experiment has been quoted and use made 
of it, not only in explaining geological phenomena, but in serving as 
the foundation of theories, it was never repeated or confirmed; and the 
experiments of M. Rose show it at least to have been hasty, although we 
do not think M. Rose’s have been as complete nor as dong continued as 


* For an account of Herr Rose’s experiments, see Transactions of the Berlin Aca- 
demy ; Poggendorf, Annalen, c. xi. 156; and Silliman’s Journal, xxxii. 112. 


150 THE GEOLOGIST. 


they ought to have been. It is not to be disputed that at the junction 
with granite and basalt, compact limestone and chalk are often converted 
into marble, as in Paradies-backen, near Drammen, in Norway, and near 
Belfast, in Ireland; but, in the case of granite, the dry method of conver- 
sion cannot be any longer tenable, since the experiments of Sorby, Delesse, 
and others, have altered our conviction of its origin. Such changes, then, 
cannot be regarded as due to heat alone, and that they were assisted by 
other agencies is a conclusion arrived at also by Bischof in a different 
manner. 

In the Arniversary Address to the Geological Society, the President, 
Mr. Leonard Horner, commented on these experiments in the following 
manner :—‘ With every respect for my friend the Professor, I think that 
T may turn round upon him and say that he has been somewhat hasty in 
considering that his experiments prove that mistakes were made by Hall 
in his descriptions of the results of his numerous experiments, all agreeing 
while obtained in so many different ways; for the Professor states that in 
both of his experiments the gun-barrel burst (at what stage of the experi- 
ment, he does not say) and thus one of the essential conditions in Hall’s 
experiments was wanting, viz. continued great pressure. I consider there- 
fore that these experiments of Professor Rose in no degree invalidate those 
of Hall, so long considered to support, in no inconsiderable degree, the 
hypothesis of Hutton.” 

Saurtsan Remarns In THE Lower Lias.—Some remains of Enalio- 
sauria, recently found in the shales at the top of the Rhetic series, zone 
of Ammonites planorbis (Wright), exposed near Droitwich, are of more 
than ordinary interest. One, unfortunately much distorted, skeleton of 
ichthyosaurus intermedius still holds, in the space between the ribs, the 
contents of the stomach, which, however, do not present any different 
features from the example described and figured by Dr. Buckland, being 
chiefly scales of Photidophorus leptocephalus and some indeterminable 
fragments of Echinide, probably of Cidaris Edwardsii, the spines of 
which occur very abundantly in these shales. Jaws of Ichthyosaurus 
tenuirostris have also been met with in fine condition in this little-known 
locality. The specimens have been carefully collected, and are now in the 
cabinet of Richard Smith, Esq., of Westacre, near Droitwich. 

Fish-remains in these Lower Liassic beds should be more attentively 
searched for. I have just received a letter from a noted microscopist, 
relating to the otolithic bone of Pholidophorus, which makes a fine object 
in the microscope.—GrorGE E. Roperts. 

OriGIN oF Sprcites.—At the Zoological Society, on the 28th January, 
Professor Owen read a paper on the anatomy of the Aye-Aye (Cheiromys 
Madagascariensis). The only point of interest to geological and paleon- 
tological readers was the part of the paper in which Professor Owen en- 
tered into the evidence afforded by the peculiarities of this animal on 
the question of the origin of species; after showing the arguments in 
favour of the derivative hypothesis, and those against its mode of operation 
as propounded by Buffon, Lamarck, and Darwin, he came to the conclusion 
that, whilst the general evidence on this subject was in favour of creation 
by law, he was compelled to acknowledge ignorance as to the mode in which 
such secondary causes might have operated in the origin of Cheiromys. 
At the same time Professor Owen fully admitted that the attempts to dis- 
sipate the mystery which environed the origin of species, whether success- 
ful or not, could not but be fraught with great collateral advantages to 
zoological science. 


REVIEWS. 


Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches, in New Granada, Equa- 
dor, Peru, and Chile. By William Bollaert, F.R.G.S. London: Triibner 
and Co., 1860. 


What has an antiquarian and ethnological book to do with geology? 
Something, we reply, if it contain any geological facts. And geological 
facts are spread about in antiquarian, and ethnological, and geographical, 
and many other sorts of books that appear to have no particular connec- 
tion whatever with the science of rocks and fossil remains. There is an 
old adage referring to the futility of looking for a needle in a load of 
hay ; and, although we should never attempt to search through the thou- 
sands of volumes of travels, descriptions of races, of idols, and of the dug-up 
relics of times gone by, for the few disseminated facts they contain, yet 
there is no reason why we should not adopt Captain Cuttle’s famous prin- 
ciple of ‘‘ when found make a note of,” and record these accidental inci- 
dents as they fallin our way. So it is that in noticing Mr. Bollaert’s book 
here, we shall offer an olla podrida of gleanings, rather than a systematic 
review. We shall pay less attention to the fair of Turmequé than to the 
emeralds which are brought there ; we shall dwell less on the exhortations 
of Xue at Bosa than to the rib which the Spaniards found there venerated 
by the Indians, and believed to have been brought thither by that person- 
age. Ina foot-note about emeralds, we are told the green varieties are 
found at Muzo, north of Bogota, and that tantalic acid and columbium 
occur in some varieties. Fine emeralds can be seen at Carthagena, ex- 
tracted from the mines of Muzo by a French company. They are found 
in attached and imbedded crystals in alluvium, but the finest are from 
veins in a blue slate, of the age of our lower chalk, in the valley of Muzo. 
One statue of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Bogota, besides 1358 dia- 
monds and other precious stones, has 1205 emeralds. Not far from the 
mountain of Itoco, in the country of the Muzos, were found, in a.p. 1555, 
two emeralds weighing 24,000 castellanos.* Three leagues from Itoco is 
Abissi, where emeralds are found. In the East Indies, medicinal and 
talismanic virtues are ascribed to this gem. The Great Exhibition of 1851 
contained the finest known emerald, two inches long, weighing 8 ozs. 
18 dwts., which came from Muzo, and is supposed to have been brought to 
England by Don Pedro, who sold it to the Duke of Devonshire. We are 
not informed how the Chibchas worked emeralds and other hard stones ; 
but the Mexicans, with tools made of copper and tin, fashioned emeralds 
into flowers, fish, ete. Cortez sent an emerald to Spain, the base of which 
was as broad as the palm of the hand. 

But to return to the bone of Nemterequetaba or Xue, the ancient pro- 
phet of the Chibchas, who came from the East, wore a long beard, and had 
his hair tied in a fillet, for it brings us to another topic of some interest. 
Mr. Bollaert takes away all the romance of this religiously-preserved 
relic—the Goth! ‘It is probable,” he hints, “this was the rib of a mas- 
todon, for bones of that animal are found in the alluvium of Suacha, where 
teeth and other fossil remains are also met with. Holton says this place is 
famous for the bones of carnivorous (?) elephants once exhumed here.” 

Coal exists at Cirnaga de Oro, on the River Sinu; on the banks of the 
Carare ; at Conejo, below Hondu; also near Bogota, and is used at Mr. 
Wilson’s iron-works. It also oecurs in Veraguas, Chiriqui, and Costa 
Rica, and on the Isle of Muerto, and at Tarraba. The coal is probably, 


* The castellano is 1415 grains. 


152 THE GEOLOGIST. 


like that of Chile, of tertiary age, excepting, perhaps, that of Bogota, 
which may be of the carboniferous or even cretaceous period. 

Gold, the yellow representative of earthly riches, at once the blessing 
and the curse of life, in this auriferous land appears before us everywhere, 
ornamenting the clothes of the living and decking the bodies of the dead, 
covering wooden idols and hanging as jingling bells from the branches of 
the sacred trees; tempting the avarice of the proud Spaniard to murder 
and to theft, and to gather glistening treasures which should perchance 
make him the prey of some stronger buccaneer. The mines of Spain are 
closed ; even the Espiritu Santo, from which alone more gold yearly went 
through Panama than from all the other mines of America put together. 
Then there is the gold-district of Coyba; the mine at Bogota, the king’s fifth 
from which was 300,000 dollars; the gold-dust of Panama and Pacora; 
the mountain of the *‘ Block of Gold”’ in the Cano del Pilon de Oro; the 
streams of the Chepo, where Major Don shovelled out the gold-earth by 
panfuls ; and the thousands of graves in Chiriqui, abounding in golden 
images and earthen pots of gold beside the black dust of mouldered bodies. 

So much for New Granada. Now for Equador or Quito. We have 
here too some geological gleanings. Coal is mentioned as occurring in 
Amortajado, and probably in Puna, Santa Clara, Santa Elena, and the coast 
of Choro. 

Passing by Latacunga and the volcano of Cotopaxi, Quito, and the vol- 
eanic Pichincha, we come to the land of the mighty Chimborazo, rearing 
itself high above the chain of the Andes, like a majestic dome upon those 
ancient monuments. What mean those tales of giants which the Caras 
believe came to these coasts on floats of rushes, and were annihilated in 
their evilness by the wrath of God? Now that man’s antiquity is proven, 
we must seek the interpretation of such old legends ; for, like the Eastern 
fable of the elephant and tortoise, there may be a long-lost meaning in 
them. In the similitudes of these traditionary tales we shall see the 
race-badges of many an ancient people. 

Whether Manta, the seaport to Monte Christo, has derived its name 
from the broad mantle-like fish which is said to squeeze the pearl-fishers of 
Panama to death, is not to our purpose, but it is so to know that it has an 
emerald-mine, and that the emeralds are found in crystalsin the rock, and 
have something of a vein-like character. “Some are half-white, others half- 
green, but they get ripe and come to perfection.” At Tezcuco there was, 
in the “ Tribunal of God,” a skull crowned with an emerald. 

At Manta, too, and Punta 8. Elena, large fossil bones are met with ;* 
some, so Humboldt states, being those of large cetaceans. Of gold, 
too, we get frequent accounts, in the form of abundance of ornaments. 
The entire range of the Cordilleras abounds with gold, silver, and copper, 
and the former metal is found in every river which has its source 
in the high lands; the mountain-range of Llanganate (S.S.E. of Quito) is 
known as the “ mother” of the gold found in the streams that run from it. 
Quicksilver is seen to ooze out of the ground in Cuenca; and the district 
of Ksmeraldas only requires searching in its streams and rocks for the 
beautiful gems from which it takes its name. But where is the far-famed 
mine from which the ancient rulers of Quito drew those gigantic emeralds 
so valued by the Conquistadores, and some of which are treasured as the 
crown-jewels of Spain. That it exists there is no doubt ; but the Indians, 
if they know the spot, conceal it. An emerald as big as a hen’s egg fell 
into the hands of Pizarro’s followers: cannot modern adventurers find it 

* The occurrence of these remains is also referred to in a paper in the Geographical 
Society’s Journal, xx., 1850. 


KEVIEWS. 153 


out? The beryl, with sky-blue and green emeralds, is found too in the 
Cordillera of Cubellan. It is often said that Peru is rich in emeralds, but 
Mr. Bollaert says that this should rather be said of Equador, as he has never 
known that gem to have been found in the former country. As the eleventh 
Inea, who died about a.p. 1475, commenced inroads on Quito, his son 
Huagna Capac conquering the country, Mr. Bollaert thinks this was the 
period at which the Peruvians became acquainted with the emerald. Paris- 
ite, a brownish-yellow crystal, composed of carbonate of lanthanium and 
didymium, with fluoride of calcium, is also found in the emerald-mines of 
uzo. 

We know nothing as to the process the natives of Quito or Peru have for 
eutting, boring, or polishing precious stones ; they may have had hardened 
copper or brass instruments, and something approaching the drill, for the 
regal emerald had holes drilled through it to keep it fast on the head. 
Wallace, in his ‘ Travels on the Amazon’ (1853, p. 278), in his account of 
the Uaupés Indians, speaks of seeing ‘‘ several men with the most peculiar 
and valued ornament—a cylindrical, opaque, white stone, which is quartz 
imperfectly crystallized. These stones are from four to eight inches long, 
and about an inch in diameter. They are ground round, and flat at the 
ends,—a work of great labour,—and are each pierced with a hole at one 
end, through which a string is placed to suspend it round the neck. It 
appears almost incredible that they should make this hole in so hard a sub- 
stance without any iron instrument for the purpose. What they are said 
to use is the pointed flexible leaf-shoot of the large wild plaintain, tri- 
turating (twirling with the hands) with fine sand and a little water; and 
thus no doubt it is, as it is said to be, a labour of years. Yet it must take 
a much longer time to pierce that which the Tushua (chief) wears as the 
symbol of his authority, for it is generally of the largest size, and is worn 
transversely across the breast, for which purpose the hole is bored length- 
ways from one end to the other, an operation which it is said sometimes 
occupies two lives. The stones themselves are procured from a great 
distance up the river, probably from near its source at the base of the 
Andes ; they are therefore highly valued, and it is seldom the owners can 
be induced to part with them, the chiefs scarcely ever.” 

In Wilkes’s ‘American Exploring Expedition,’ it is stated that, “on 
Bowditch Island, in the Pacific, the hand-drill is used, pointed with hard 
stone, for drilling shells.” ‘‘Could such an adaptation,” Mr. Bollaert asks, 
ae been employed by the emerald-drillers of Mexico, Bogoté, and 

uito P” 

When Mr. Bollaert gossips about the Incas and the old Peruvians, 
it is hard not to digress, the subject is so enchanting; but we draw 
the bonds of our speciality closer and resolutely resist. And that we may 
not be allured, we bridge over this part with a string of the Captain Cuttle 
sort of extracts. 

“There was some quillay or iron-ore particularly at Cuancha; but it 
was not smelted by the Indians, that being too serious an operation for 
them. Gold and silver were merely melted, but the chloride and sulphuret 
of silver, by the aid of fire and air, could be reduced by them.” 

“Tn vol. i. ‘Mercurio Peruano,’ p. 201, a.p. 1791, the following mines 
are mentioned as having been worked by the Incas :—Escaméra, Chilleo, 
and Abatantis, of gold; Choquinifiaé and Porco, of silver; Curahato, of 
copper ; Carabuco, of lead (probably the vicinity of Oruro yielded tin) ; 
and the magnificent iron-works (!) of Ancoriames, on the east margin of 
Lake Titicaca, are particularized.” 

“Cope, a mineral pitch, is found near Point S. Elena, and Amotape, 


VOM SN. Xx 


154 THE GEOLOGIST. 


near Piura. It abounds in Realejo, and at Chumpi, near Guamanga in 
Peru.” 

“At the foot of the mountain of Curataqui is a cavern, and from the 
number of bones of children and animals met with, was probably a place 
of sacrifice. ... Walls, ruins, and roads are seen in many parts of 
Equador, in the plains, sides of mountains, and on their summits; the 
more irregular are thought to be the work of people long before the con- 
quest of the country by the Incas.” 

Peru and Bolivia now claim attention. A sandy desert runs along the 
whole extent of coast from Tumbez to Loa. The western Cordillera is as- 
cended by rugged paths to an elevation where the frozen Andean plains or 
paramos are found, out of which rise the colossal peaks of the Andes, 
covered with eternal glaciers. From the burning heat of Egypt to the icy 
cold of Siberia, there is here every gradation of climate. ‘ In the valleys 
of the coast, and those of the interior, all the species of quadrupeds and 
domestic birds known in Europe are now bred.” 

In Bolivia we have the rich barilla or native-copper mines of San Bar- 
tolo; and in the desert of Atacama, Dr. Philippi places the region of me- 
teoric iron. Near Rosario are ancient gold-mines; at Olarios, nuggets 
have been found of from eighteen to thirty-seven ounces. Copper and 
gold is worked at Conche; silver, iron, alum, sulphur, salts, borate of 
lime, and nitrate of soda. Guano is found at Argamo and San Franscisco 
on the coast. The mines of Potosi—world-wide is their fame! ‘The City 
of Silver” is 13,320 feet above the sea, and the “ Silver Mountain” top 
15,200 feet. The mines of Conche supply the copper hammers for its busy 
miners. Up to 1846, the ‘Anales de Potosi’ tells us, £330,544,311 was 
the value of the precious metal extracted from its mines. 

Lipes and many another district are rich in silver mines; in gold and 
copper; salt-plains there are too, and lakes. In Tariga fossil bones of 
mastodons and mammoths are found in various places, and gold and silver 
are said to be met with in the mountain of Polla. But we shall fill page 
after page if we state half the places in this rich region where gold and 
silver are recorded ; and those who want to know more details—we think 
we have given enough—must consult Mr. Bollaert’s cyclopedia of facts, 
for such his book really is. 

It may not be written with that continuous flow of pleasant diction 
which gives such a charm to some books of travel; but it is one of the 
densest masses of facts we ever perused. For any defects of language, we 
may observe, we should bear in mind that Mr. Bollaert is not an English- 
man ; and when we remember this, we shall be more inclined to take an 
Depa course, and wonder at his generally accurate knowledge of our 

ongue. 


1s . > y a‘ . ° S 

Essai dune Réponse & la Question du Prix proposé en 1850 par l Académie 
des Sciences pour le concours de 1853, et puis remise pour celui de 1856. 
Par M. le Professeur Bronn. i 


The task which the successful candidate for the above prize had to ac- 
complish was “to examine the laws of the distribution of organized fossil 
bodies according to the order of their superposition in the various sedi- 
mentary deposits ; to discuss the question whether their appearance or dis- 
appearance was successive or simultaneous ; to seek for the signification of 
the relations between the existing state of the organic world and its an- 
terior states.” This task, which to perform successfully would require the 
most universal knowledge of fossil and recent organisms, and in which 


155 


REVIEWS. 


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156 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the great problem of the origin of species was indirectly involved, was un- 
dertakeu, in the year 1856, by two candidates. 

One of these treated the question in a summary manner; he merely 
examined a few very limited points of the question, and not the whole 
series of the facts, which the Academy required of him. Accordingly, in 
spite of many ingenious views, which were rather geological than paleon- 
tological, the Commission, which consisted of MM. Elie de Beaumont, 
Flourens, Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Milne-Edwards, and Ad. Bron- 
gniart, declined to receive the memoir into their consideration. 

The other memoir, bearing the significant inscription, or epigraph, Wa- 
tura doceri, being a quarto volume of nearly five hundred pages, with nu- 
merous tables, received the prize of the Commission, and has been since 
published both in the German and French languages. 

The French translation is now before us; and we must regard the pub- 
lication of this magnificent work as forming an era in paleontology. Any 
précis of the argument of the author is clearly impossible. We give a few 
of the tables which Professor Bronn employs, as specimens. 

Professor Bronn lays it down as a rule that omne ens ex aqua 
(all beings have their origin in fluid), which he says is true not merely as 
regards individual beings, but as regards sub-kingdoms and even kingdoms. 
To exhibit this truth more clearly, he offers the Table No. 1, where the 
proportional numbers of the inhabitants of the sea, the freshwater, and 
the dry land are indicated, in all the classes of the animal kingdom, so that 
each class is represented in its entirety by the number 4, and it is indi- 
cated in each class of one, two, three, or four, if its genera or species in- 
habit the one or other of these elements ; those media of existence which 
only number a few isolated inhabitants, being indicated by an asterisk (*). 
Bronn adds the sign (!) when respiration by gills exist, and the double 
sign (!!) when no specialized respiratory organ is developed. 


TABLE II.—SuHowine THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN THE CARNIVOROUS 
AND PHyYTOPHAGOUS ANIMALS. 


(Plant-eaters—Phytophaga.) (Flesh-eaters—Sarcophaga.) 
INSECTS. 

Myriapoda. Arachnids, the majority. 

Trachearian Arachnids in small number. 

Hexapoda; many Diptera, all Lepidoptera, | Hexapoda; many Diptera, most Neurop- 
Hemiptera, Orthoptera, half the Hy- tera, half the Hymenoptera, some Cole- 
menoptera, nearly all the Coleoptera. optera (Carabici), feed on other insects. 

REPTILES. 
Sea-turtles. | Most of the terrestrial types. 
BirDs. 


Most Natatores and Grallatores, Insecti- 
vorous Passeres ; Birds of prey. 


Some Natatores and Grallatores, most Gal- 
lineee, Pigeons, many granivorous and 
frugivorous Passeres; Nectariniz, 


MAMMALIA. 


Some Bruta and Marsupials, most Cheiro- 
ptera, Insectivora and Carnivora, some 
Quadrumana. 


Sirenia, Ruminantia, part of Pachydermata, 
Ghires, most Bruta, some Cheiroptera, 
most Marsupials and Quadrumana. 


REVIEWS. 157 


TABLE III. 
SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF VERTEBRATE ANIMALS IN TIME. 


Carboniferous. 


Silurian. 
Devonian. 
Permian. 
Triassic, 
Jurassic, 
Cretaceous. 
Eocene. 


MAMMALIA. 
PIA GEN GANIDE! Rcasin leh esis iaciineeaeie ees 
PGRROGDIAI Yate siecs sn’ ces ccecisct's = 

J PEJUEDU EGOS) ae agae Aa nOBM ee pep ac eeE eon 
BPAGCEMEAAT oy. 2. cadae oo. ses sen - vee 


AVES. 
Arboricolee (nidicole) 
Terrestres et Aquaticee 
Plerseque WIGMORe..- .. ic. s. secs ess see 


REPTILIA. 
Monopnoa. 
CICLO so eas eee 


Bp eas i idcleD=-+ s'c% Cuainicie's o's vs 


PISCcEs. 
Oligobranchi. 
IDS, 2a nc arO cee eeen eer eee 
PICICOSIIE ORE cor co col iussedesesccnee 
Ganoidei : 


(Regulares) 


Holostei Euspondyli............... ; 
Hemispondyli et Aspondyli ...... 
(Irregulares) 
SHUR OM ES 1 \c Ae clea le eared de Skala 
Wepnalaspides = 0). ss. ee ences se 
Polybrancht. 
Elasmobranchi. 
Plagiostomi : 
Squalide et Rajide.............. 
Cestraciontes et Hylodontes 
Whimesrid sey we vacsins alec cates mo 


158 THE GEOLOGIST. 


He concludes in the following manner :—“ The results arrived at repose 
on the momentaneous state of our positive knowledge of the fossil world. 
New discoveries may modify them, and perhaps even change some of their 
details. But the general laws which we have established are based now 
on too large an amount of facts to permit doubt of their reality, or fear lest 
some exceptions of inferior importance may refute them entirely. We cannot 
pretend that Nature, although actually following the indicated method dur- 
ing creation, has never made an exceptional step, for reasons which remain 
tous unknown. The phenomena in question are not of a nature to be 
able to be assigned to fundamental laws, with the same certainty and ri- 
gour as physical or chemical facts, which can be calculated according to 
the laws of attraction and affinity, or perhaps the causes which have pro- 
duced them are too complicated to permit us to recognize them perfectly. 
If the same rigorous law was the sole cause of all these facts, the know- 
ledge of extinct populations which the fossil remains in the earth’s strata 
furnishes to us would always remain defective, as we shall be never certain 
of knowing all the facts, which are of such importance to enable us to 
formulate exactly the expression of our belief. Whether the results to 
which we have at present arrived satisfy us or not, we have only searched 
for truth, and announced what we have discovered. Even when construct- 
ing &@ priori a series of theoretical laws, we have not sought to establish a 
preconceived opinion ; our object was to establish a method which would 
lead us to reply to all the questions in relation to our problem. Before 
accepting these theoretical laws, we were bound to make rigorous obser- 
vations, which we see confirmed by facts. For our motto has been for 
many years, and ever will be, Nature will teach.” 

If the principles actuating such noble sentiments as these were practised 
by all paleontologists, England might hope for a brighter future in its 
scientific world than promises to dawn upon us for many years. 


The Theology of Geologists, as exemplified in the cases of the late Hugh 
Miller and others. With an Appendix on the Nature and Properties 
of the Torbanehill Mineral, by Hugh Miller. By William Gillespie, 
Author of ‘The Necessary Existence of God,’ etc. etc. Edinburgh: 
A. and C. Black. 


It is wellnigh impossible to conceive the present creation devoid of man 
as its governing spirit. We almost inseparably associate the idea of animal 
life with intelhigence and reason. Were they thus united in the paleozoic 
ages? If this conjunction be necessary, it must have existed from the 
dawn of life,—and so, we by no means, prejudge the question as to man’s 
antiquity, or the existence of a pre-Adamic race. 

If the further researches of animal psychology should substantiate such 
a connection as we have indicated, we may expect to arrive at as strange 
conclusions regarding psychical life in the geologic zons, as those which the 
researches of Cuvier and Owen into the animal structures of the past have 
revealed. In thus anticipating deeper glimpses into the economy of the 
past than any yet attained from the mere study of fossils, we by no means 
wish to resuscitate the fantastic dreamings of some cosmogonists of the 
sixteenth century ; but would only remind geologists that animal psycho- 
logy is as truly an inductive science as any observational one. Laws inse- 
eee linking the physical and psychical life of organized beings may yet 

»e established ; and these will extend over past as well as present life. The 
psychologist, then, may yet include fossils under his cognizance. And 
the conclusions he may arrive at regarding the instincts and habits of the 


REVIEWS. 159 


primeval animals may be as certain as those of the paleontologist in refe- 
rence totheir structure. Again, as the psychical and moral are intimately 
associated, the theologian, too, has claims on past life. Physiology expressly 
indicates a connection between physical and moral law; while Scripture 
as expressly declares it. And so an inquiry such as we have indicated, so 
far from being trifling or minute, interlaces itself with questions of the 
most momentous importance. 

The existence of such organisms as a lion’s paw or the jaw of ashark, so 
wondrously adapted for the purposes of rapine in a creation otherwise filled 
with evidences of the utmost benevolence, has led most natural theologians 
to conclude in the existence of an active principle of evil. This is 
strengthened by the statements of Scripture regarding the tree of know- 
ledge of good and evil, as well as the recognition by the Saviour, both in 
his miracles and in his didactic statements, of the power of the arch-enemy 
over physical nature. The evidences of death by violence in the geologic 
eras have given an additional importance to this inquiry. Did some dis- 
turbing moral element prevail in the old creations of the past ? is a question 
affirmed and denied by equally competent writers. The pamphlet at the 
head of this article is perhaps the best original exposition published in this 
country on the affirmative ; while the two works it specially combats— 
those by Hugh Miller and Paton Gloag—are the best representatives of 
the opposite side of the question. ‘The learned German theologian Kurtz 
has perhaps most fully discussed this topic; he shows that not only the 
past history of our globe, but also that of the whole universe, may be inti- 
mately connected with moral dynasties in which Satan and his angels 
mingled. 

Mr. Gillespie affirms that geology can only bear witness as to the exist- 
ence of the carnivorous monsters of the past; and that the theologian 
alone has the right to discuss the reasons why they were furnished with 
such implements of rapine and destruction. Hugh Miller, on the contrary, 
founding his whole argument of the ‘ Testimony of the Rocks’ on the doc- 
trine that the Mosaic creation is that referred to by geology, affirms that as 
all these past creations were pronounced ‘very good,” so these animals 
must have come direct from the hands of the Creator. Whether or not 
Miller has in this case departed from his usual philosophic style, our readers 
must judge. But to do this they must hear both sides; and they will find 
in Mr. Gillespie’s pamphlet ample material on a topic which will occupy 
more than it has done the thoughts of speculative men. 


A Glossary of Mineralogy. By H. W. Bristow, F.G.S., of the Geologicai 
Survey of Great Britain. London: Longman and Co., 1861. 


The public waited a long time for this work, and it has proved worth 
waiting for. To have a cheap book is something ; to have a good book is 
better. But to have a book at once cheap and good is to have all we can 
desire of author or publisher. The preface opens by telling us it was 
undertaken to supply a want which the author had often felt—and, we 
may add, how many others? Having felt it himself, is fortunately, 
perhaps, one reason of his success in supplying the concise handy manual 
which meets that want, and will make the stony road of mineralogy 
more easily trodden by future students. The work is arranged on the plan 
of a glossary or dictionary, with a capital introduction giving the general 
characters of minerals, followed by an excellent table of classification. 
The general characters of minerals of course are those which relate to external 
form and structure, and characters dependent on light; these are divided 


160 THE GEOLOGIST. 


into optical properties ; physical properties ; other characters, such as 
streak, taste, odour, etc. ; characters dependent on cohesion; chemical 
characters; all of which are briefly but intelligibly explained. The system 
of classification adopted is that used by Mr. Warington Smyth in his 
lectures at the School of Mines, and the division is primarily into Non- 
metallic and Metallic minerals. The former into the five classes of—1. 
Carbon and Boron; 2. Sulphur and Selenium; 3. Haloids and Salts ; 
4. Earths; 5. Silicates and Aluminates. The latter into four classes— 
1. Brittle and difficult of Fusibility ; 2. Brittle, easily Fusible and Volatile ; 
3. Malleable, not reducible by heat alone; 4. Noble Metals, reducible by 
heat alone. ‘This is followed by a list of symbols and signs, and explana- 
tions of the technical terms used by jewellers and lapidaries. The book 
consists of 420 closely-printed pages, and is teeming with outline illustra- 
tions, small, but carefully executed. Asasample of its plana single extract 
will suffice, and at the same time will probably convey information to 
some of our readers :— 


“CHLORITE, Werner. Hexagonal ; occurs in tabular six-sided prisms. Col our 
various shades of dull emerald-green in the direction of the axis, and yellowis h o 
hyacinth-red at right angles to it; also pure white or yellowish. Massive varieties 
olive-green. Semi-transparent to sub-translucent. Lustre pearly; yields to the 
nail, and when in powder is unctuous to the touch. Streak corresponding to the 
colour. H. 1 to 15. 8. G. 2°7 to 2°85. Compact chlorite is amorphous. Chlorite- 
slate posseses a slaty structure, and frequently contains imbedded octahedral 
crystals of magnetic iron, hornblende, and garnets. Earthy chlorite is composed 
of small pearly, glimmering, scaly particles. It has a somewhat greasy feel, and 
bears a striking resemblance to Green Earth. 


Composition. 4 (Mg Fe), Al, Fe, 2 Si, 3 H=4 Mg Si+3H. 

Analysis, from the Pyrenees by Delesse, Silica 32:1, Alumina 
18°5, Magnesia 36°7, Protoxide of Iron 0°6, Water 12°1=100°0. 

Chlorite frequently contains as much as 8 or 9 per cent. of protoxide of iron ; 
those kinds which have more (up to 28 or 29 per cent.) are classed with Ripidolite. 
Before the blowpipe some lose their colour and fuse at the edges ; with borax 
affords an iron-reaction.—Localities. The tin mines of Cornwall, where it is well 
known by the name of peach. Also in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and near 
Llanberis in Caernarvonshire. At Portsoy, in Banffshire, it is mixed with Ser- 
pentine, and is frequently cut and polished.—Name. From xAepoés, green. This 
mineral may be distinguished from mica by its lamine being flexible but not 
elastic, while those of mica are very elastic. It has been proposed by Descloiseaux 
to divide chlorite into three groups, Pennine, Clinochlore, and Ripidolite ; to which 
may be added Leuchtenbergite.— Specimens. British Museum; Case 52. Museum 
of Practical Geology ; Horse-shoe Case, Nos. 1039—1043, 1047.” 


In this little book also the various names used by different authors have 
been introduced, as well as certain terms which, although now obsolete, 
are very useful for reading the works of the older mineralogists, in which 
they constantly occur ; while the copious lists of synonyms are very valu- 
able to the student in perusing the works of foreign authors. We could 
say much more of its merits. It is very easy to “ cut up” a bad book, 


a it is by no means so easy to say properly all we would of a good one. 
e can reco nd Mr. Bris 7 : : wae : : 

re oe ; : mmend Mi Bristow’s book to our student-readers; and, as its 
price and dimensions bring it within the reach of every one’s means, we 


adyise them to test the value of our praise by buying it and reading it. 


PLATE IX. 


THE FOSSIL CHPHALITES 


ONGE, 


.D 
at 


SCENT § 


vL 


DT 
—H 


t 


ILLUSTRATIVE OF 


CHALK. 


OF THE 


of Dr. Bowerbank. 


Collection 


e 


* 
1 
if 


fin t] 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


MAY 1862. 


WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES? 


The question which heads this article is not a new one. An old 
one, indeed, it is; and, common as chalk flints and chalk ventriculites 
are, it does not show much energy on the part of cretaceous—we do 
not know how else to single them out—geologists and paleontolo- 
gists, that this old question has never yet been answered. 

The only man who has ever worked properly on the subject is Mr. 
Toulmin Smith, who many years ago laboured hard and well on these 
curious organisms, and then retired on his laurels. But Mr. Smith, 
like all men who have devoted themselves to a special subject, is full 
of prejudices—we do not mean to say errors—and no progress in our 


Fig. 1.—Portion of Flint Nodule, with shells attached to Ventriculite. 


knowledge can be hoped to be made until these prejudices are at- 

tacked. Mr. Smith, having duit his castle, is not likely to strengthen 

it until its walls have been undermined, or at least have been battered 
VOL. V. ¥ 


162 THE GEOLOGIST. 


by the artillery of able antagonists. Dr. Bowerbank is considered 
to be the only powerful opponent of Mr. Smith’s views ; but whether 
the Doctor has expressed his opinions in print or only verbally in 
ordinary conversation, we do not know; at any rate, the world be- 
lieves the anviable philosopher of Barnsbury Grove to differ in opinion 
from the ventriculite-anatomist of Highgate Hill. Mr. Smith be- 
lieves them to be highly-organized polypidoms, which in their living 
state were covered over with tentaculated polypes, or that at least 
were studded with hundreds of tentacle-surrounded heads, ever 
waving their tiny arms, and catching and feeding upon the tiny 
prey or on fragments ‘of animal substanees which came within their 
clutch. What Dr. Bowerbank believes them to be we need not say 
is—sponges. 

Now we quite agree with Mr. Smith in one of the opening remarks 
of his articles printed in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ in 1848, 
“that the knowledge of any creature is not merely the sight, or bare 
handling, or even the giving a name to a specimen; it must imply 
some knowledge of structure or functions.” Now Mr. Toulmin 
Smith did not rest content with seeing and naming these curious 
organisms, but he spent weeks at the Burnham chalk-pits, near 
Maidstone, in collecting them, and months in slicing the hard flints, 
in which the organized structures were best preserved, with the 
lapidary’s wheel, and painsfully examining thin slices and polished 
surfaces under the microscope. He did more than this. In the 
chalk, as in the flints, the fibres of the ventriculites are preserved in 
threads of sulphuret or oxide of iron, and by dissolving away the soft 
chalk with weak acid, he left the iron-threads standing out free from 
their calcareous matrix, and exhibiting a model in metallic rust of their 
former natural structure. In these ways he developed a condition of 
inosculatiug fibres in some specimens, which then presented an extra- 
ordinary anomaly in animal structure—and which remains, we do 

not hesitate to say, an anomaly still. These 

fibres were seen to form the outlines, so to 

speak, of octahedrons. Straight in them- 

selves, they first crossed each other, and then 

these joints were cross-braced by other fi- 

bres, as in the following fig. 2. The whole 

organism was seen thus to be made up of a 

Pig. 2. webbing or tissue, all the joints of the 

crossing threads of which were cross-braced and strengthened in this 
remarkable way (fig. 3); so that, of the finest, and perhaps most 


WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES ? 163 


brittle, thread-wires, a structure of the most delicate nature was 
reared, and made rigid enough and strong enough to stand erect 
against the gentle currents which flowed over the deep bottom of the 
cretaceous sea. It is not our purpose here 
to describe the species of ventriculites, bra- 
chiolites, and cephalites which Mr. Smith 
has recognized ; but we want to know what as : 
ventriculites are, or at any rate to gather *¥/ Ac VA eg 
some more information about them than is at ~2 x4 
present possessed. Just as into the Infu- ~ oe aw: 
soria naturalists put every sort of organism “Y Zs Sa 
whose nature they do not understand, so | 
geologists and palzontologists have cast on 
their “ muck-heap ’—sponges—every sort of round, funnel-shaped, or 
stemmed and ball-headed fossils which they have not knowledge 
enough, or have not taken the pains to place anywhere else. 

Now, if Mr. Smith be right in his account of this cross-braced 
structure and in the interpretation he has put upon it, the ventri- 
culites cannot be sponges. Spicula we have in sponges, but spicula 
are always lying loose, never cross-braced by actual junctions. More- 
over, sponges are of amorphous structure—they are typical of the 
group AMorPHOzOA; and a hundred-head tenticulated animal is not 
amorphous. | 

The case at the present hour stands much as it did fourteen years 
ago—namely, thus: Mr. Toulmin Smith, by devoted and admirable 
efforts, examined, arranged, and gave a nomenclature to these ventri- 
culites; and after a most rigid inquiry—carried a great way towards 
perfection, but never perfected—asserted these characteristic fossils 
of the chalk to have belonged to highly organized creatures, at least 
approaching to the grade of the lower Polypifera. Then Professor 
Morris, in his ‘ Catalogue of British Fossils,’ adopting Mr. Smith’s 
nomenclature and generic and specific arrangement, replaced the 
ventriculites in the Amorphozoa, without any written reason—such, 
it is but justice to say, not being within the scope of his book—and 
without having, as far as we know, in any other publication disputed 
Mr. Toulmin Smith’s facts. 

Professor Morris’s dictum might have been taken when he first 
published - his ‘ Catalogue,’ many years ago; but the dictum or judg- 
ment of no man ought to be taken in this year of grace 1862, when 
no living man is equal to the acquirement of a universal and perfect 
knowledge of the progress of the sciences. 


Fig. 3. 


164 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Neither must we take Mr. Smith’s dictum nor Dr. Bowerbank’s. 
We must take the evidence before us. How does this stand? Mr. 
Smith has seen this octahedral structure in some species and he 
applies it to all. But he has not proved it by actual examination, 
he has not seen it in every case. Dr. Bowerbank, who has lent us the 
beautiful specimen of recent sponge which we figure (Plate IX.), as 
presenting such a marvellous resemblance in its corrugations to certain 
species of cephalites, we think, does not believe in the octahedral 
structure occurring in all the species of ventriculites, brachiolites, 
and cephalites; but then we are not aware whether he or any one 
else has ever examined, certainly no one has ever figured, the rudi- 
mentary structures of every species of those interesting groups. 

What we want, in the first place, then, is a thorough definition 
from some zoologist or paleontologist of what are the marking cha- 
racters of a sponge. As far as we ourselves can make out, sponges 
are amorphous animals of a globular form, or of some modification 
of a globular form, such as funnel-shaped, stemmed with a disk-like 
or ball-like head, or convoluted. They may even be angulated, like 
the Guettardia angularis of the chalk group of ventriculites; for the 
modifications of the true sponges may be regarded as modifications 
of the natural tendency in the true spherical sponges to form a large 
central perforating canal, the enlargements of which or of its walls, 
combined with various kinds of constrictions in them and the elon- 
gation of the sponge’s attachment-part into a stem, are capable of 
giving rise to every known modification of true sponge. There is 
nothing therefore in the various and sometimes intricate shapes of 
the Ventriculide to militate against their being sponges. But if 
Mr. Smith’s octahedral structure is to be met with in all, then they 
would seem not to be sponges; and if only some are thus constituted, 
then these few must most probably be taken out of that family, for it 
is not likely the animals which clothed such elaborated skeletons were 
—what those of sponges must be—amorphous. 

Some one of our young geologists who wants to aequire name and 
fame should set to work collecting in flint and in chalk specimens of 
every species exhibiting structure. The flints he should cut up into 
thinnish slices, or slit them through, and polish their surfaces for 
microscopic examination, and the chalk specimens should be cleared 
out with acid, as Mr. Smith years ago did, but we regret no longer 
does. Careful drawings of the structure of each species should be 
made, and the evidence of their aceur acy—the original specimens from 
which they were made—religiously preserved. 


WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES P 165 


Then, and not till then, shall we have the proper data for replying 
to our question, WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES ? 

We would say a few words on the rigidity of the ventriculites. We 
know there is a tendency amongst geologists to consider the ventricu- 
lites as of flexible structure when living. This notion, originating with 
the late Dr. Mantell, has been perpetuated by their occurrence as 
fossils in every variety of shape, apparently of dilation or contraction. 
On the other hand, it has been urged that the attachment of oyster 
and dianchora shells and serpule prove that they must have been 
rigid, because otherwise such parasites could not have lived and 
grown on them, as the growth-lines of such shells prove them to 
have done. 

For our own part we do not see the force of either argument, for 
the apparent expansions and contractions may be, as we believe 
them, a mere accidentai kind of growth of the ventriculite, which had a 
general tendency to flatten or become disk-lke with age. We are 
not aware that any closer approximations of the constituent fibres 
in the so-regarded contracted specimens, or of their dilations in the 
equally hypothetical expanded ones, has ever been observed; and, 
moreover, such a complicated and braced structure, which is pointed 
to as a wonderful example of the Creator’s engineering skill to pro- 
duce a comparatively strong framework out of the slenderest ma- 
terials, would lose its apparent object, and certainly must have been 
one of the most awkward and intractable of any which could have 
been conceived for such a purpose as elasticity or flexibility. 

As to the growth of shells upon ventriculites, of all the examples 
we have seen, and they are many, most were decidedly attached to 
dead skeletons. Some few we have seen pitted by the marks of 
the corrugations and pores of the skin, and such evidently shows 
that the oyster or dianchora grew on the living ventriculite, the fry 
fixing themselves most probably, in the first instance, in the inter- 
spaces between the pores, if the ventriculite was a sponge, or between 
the tentaculated heads, if the ventriculite was a polypiferous organism. 
In some instances, and we figure an example (see fig. 1, p. 161), the 
oyster or dianchora growing for some time on the living skin, grew on 
after the death of the ventriculite ; for, if Dr. Bowerbank’s theory of 
the sponge-origin of flint be true, and it certainly is the best hypothe- 
sis yet propounded, the amorphous sponge growth enveloping the 
ventriculite, and since converted into flint, was prevented growing 
over those shell-fish by the currents produced by their gills, and the 
motive action of their unattached valves in opening and closing ; conse- 


166 THE GEOLOGIST. 


quently their attached shells are found wacovered in somewhat deep 
depressions, or rather hollows in the flint nodule. 

The attachment of some very young oysters on the raised portions 
of the piece of flint nodule we have figured at a later period, either 
on the enveloping sponge after its life was arrested, or on the 
hardened surface of the nodule itself, is an excuse or a reason (which- 
ever the reader pleases) for a slight digression on the formation of 
flint, and which we should not make, did we not desire to figure a 
very instructive specimen from the collection of Dr. Bowerbank 
(Plate X.). It consists of the shell of a galerite imbedded in flint, 
a very common occurrence, though not commonly met with in such 
an illustrative manner. 

The shell evidently must have been supported, for the flint ex- 
tends far beneath it. It could not have rested three or four inches 
above the cretaceous wud without something tolerably solid under- 
neath to uphold it. A sponge would do this effectually; silex in 
a dense gelatinous state would also support it, but then the gela- 
tinous substance would yield to pressure, and the shell, or whatever 
it was which rested on it, would incline to one side or other, accord- 
ing to its natural angle of rest. In the example figured, a sponge 
has grown all round, and covered with a plastering or film the whole 
of the interior of the galerite, while the life-existence of it was cut 
off or its growth arrested for want of a proper circulation of water, 
when the more dense mass of sponge which grew up from the floor 
of the galerite attained two-thirds the height of the cavity. The 
growth of the supporting sponge went on outside the galerite in a 
flourishing condition, and the shell was at last wholly and thickly 
enveloped. 

Then the hardening into flint went on, and after the nodule had 
been formed the calcareous shell-matter of the galerite was slowly 
dissolved out—for water percolates even flints—and a cavity was 
formed between the thin inner film of sponge or flint and the flint 
cast of the exterior of the shell. This thin inner film is most valu- 
able evidence here, for we could not account for it by the gelatinous 
deposition of silex, while we can explain it by the growth of sponge. 
it might, it is true, be formed by the oozing through the shell of the 
galerite of water containing minute quantities of flint in solution. 
But then its evenness over the roof and sides alike would be a little 
strange. 

From the consolidation of flint around the lower parts of the 
stems and roots of ventriculites, much of their former living nature 


PAV AGH Sox 


SECTION OF NODULE WITH CAST OF A GALERITE, 
OF THE SPONGE-ORIGIN OF FLINT. 


So Jo MACS, WIGESo, eel: 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


rr J 


Pag 
na 


ELLIOTT—HEATHERY BURN CAVE. 167 


is still to be learnt; and the subject we have now appended to our 
more legitimate remarks is by no means so irrelevant as at first sight 
it might seem. It is a common thing to find the roots of ventricu- 
lites covered over with a nodule of flint, in which holes are seen, 
through which the finer ends only of the separate rootlets have pro- 
truded. If these flints were originally sponges, first growing round 
the stems and roots of young ventriculites, then their very peculiar 
character is at once explained. But it is not by any means easy to 
imagine how a gelatinous mass of silex could consolidate under roots 
which in that case must have been imbedded in the chalk mud before 
any segregation of silicious matter took place beneath them. More- 
over, such sponge growth will explain the plugs of flint which fill the 
central cavities of ventriculites, and the annular disks and rings 
which sometimes form bands round their conical exteriors; and we 
cannot but think some facts are from these sources to be elicited 
which shall have a practical bearing on the habits and living nature 
of the ventriculites. 


FURTHER DISCOVERIES IN HEATHERY BURN CAVE. 
By Joun Exuiott, Esq. 


Since the publication of my paper “ On the Discovery of Human 
and Animal Bones in Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope,” in the 
‘Geologist’ for January last, there have been further very important 
discoveries made in that cave. 

In carrying on the quarrying operations from the point where 
they were suspended (see F*—fig. 1) when the first discovered 
relics were sent to Londony the workmen found numerous frag- 
ments of bones, also bone pins and knives, fragments of very rude 
pottery, portion of an armlet, boar-tusks, bronze spear-head, pins, 
celts, and armlet, two coins, some marine shells, cockle, limpet, and 
mussels, and large quantities of charcoal, etc., all deposited under an 
incrustation of stalagmite, varying from 2 to 4, or at some places to 
8 inches in thickness, with the exception of one or two manufactured 
articles, which were found in the sand not covered by stalagmite. 
The whole of the cave-deposits, with this trifling exception, were 
covered by a thick sheet of stalagmite, varying from a very dense, 
compact structure, to a highly crystalline, or to a more or less porous 
substance: some portions easily fractured by the stroke of a hammer, 
others yielding only to most energetic blows. 

The bronze armlet and the two coins were found in sand uncovered 


+ Received by the Editor on the 14th of April. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


168 


‘oyIp WOIHDUY—'N W. 


"9S.MODIOJLM JWI —"'T Y ‘a1aY PUNOF [eooreyo Jo soryyuenb osrey 
[eOOTLT TIA “puvs Ur GopULIvozTIO.LG pur ysny‘s}Ja0 oztto1q UaABg—'e | nq ‘sa7ggad Lo pums OA “punoy 910M Joie Jo UoTyAod pue 
‘TRooaeyo Jo soytpuLUb o8aey WLM ‘Kroyjod ‘suid ouo0g “soaruy ouog “systy ‘souoq uUvUIMY 9104 \\A—'if 
‘sofqqed puv pues ur ‘surd ozuorg ‘peoy-avods ozuo01q ‘souog¢—"}{ : “QAvd oq} Jo Soplis—q O pur | V 
‘JRooreyo Jo sorytpuend rosaey WLM ‘sapqqod Yyoous “PONsst 19}8m ALO M oat JO YIPLIM—O V 
pue pues osaroo ut “ozo ‘daoyjod ‘sysnq ‘suid ouoq ‘souoq—"y "dAVO OY} OPIS}NO OUl] ost] —'d] \i 
"saouatafayy 


“yout oY} 0} 4oay QT [kag 
“989 NA 


South. 
“YON, 


"jSUNT 


‘TAVO JO NVIg-aNnoug—'T “SL 


ELLIOTT—HEATHERY BURN CAVE. 169 


by stalagmite, but as they were deposited in what had, not long ago, 
been the watercourse, the stalagmite had either been denuded, or 
had been prevented from forming, at that particular place, by ‘the 
action of the stream ; the coms were under very little cover, and might 
have been imbedded very receutly. 

The stream of water through the cave has evidently changed its 
course many times since the cave was excavated to its present s1ze, 
as we find accumulations of sand and gravel (at F* and G, in eround- 
plan, fig. 1), about three feet above the present water- level, and about 
two feet above the ancient watercourse (M, N). 

At aa, fig. 2, there was a hillock of angular blocks, ete. covered 
by stalagmite, and upon this stalagmitic hillock were deposited bones, 


Fig. 2.— LONGITUDINAL Section ar F. (See Ground-Plan.) 


30 feet. 

ft. in. 
fF. Open cave. Se 
e. Stalagmite en OA 
d. Bone bed . ye 
e. Stalagmite : 0 3 
a. Angular blocks . 2 19 

10 0 


7. 


xz. Rock, limestone. 


tusks, bone knives and pins, large and small snail-shells, fragments 
of pottery, piece of an armlet, a cockle-shell, and large quantities of 
charcoal, cemented together by calcareous matter. No sand or gravel 
was observed amongst them; there being considerable interstices in 
some parts of the bed, plainly showing they had not been drifted 
there by water, but pointing to the conclusion that they had been pur- 
posely placed there by the animals or men that inhabited the cave. 
Part of these bones, etc., formed the subject of my former paper 
above alluded to, but no manufactured bones, etc., had been found 
when it was written. 

At @, fig. 1, the bones, bone pins, tusks, pottery, and charcoal 
were found in coarse sand and smooth pebbles, and might have been 
drifted while in the cave, but it is not at all probable that they were 


drifted into it, for every appearance connected with the deposits, such 
VOL. V. V, 


170 THE GEOLOGIST. 
as the large quantities of charcoal found, and the numerous burnt 
stones, etc., lead to the belief that the cave had been inhabited for a 
considerable length of time; and that fires had been burned at diffe- 
rent places the thick deposits of charcoal testify. j 
The bronze implements found at H. and J in fig. 1, were asso- 
ciated with a few bones, a limpet- 
shell, some mussel-shells, and a 
large quantity of charcoal, and 
were deposited in sand and gravel. 
The deposits throughout the 
cave are nearly on the same re- 
lative level, with the exception of 
the hillock already mentioned ; 
and while the greatest part of 
them have only one stalagmitic 
covering, the hillock and a few 
feet towards g, in fig. 1, had a 
sheet under the “ bone-bed,” ex- 
tending over 6 6, fig. 2, where it vanished, and its place was occu- 
pied by sand and pebbles, as we see in the transverse section (fig. 3). 
The “Communion Table,” as it was called by the visitors to the 
cave, was a large pillar of the rock, around which the water had 
washed until it had undermined the base, when the pillar fell down, 
leaving a considerable space between its top and the roof of the cave, 
which had afterwards been partially refilled by pendulous stalactites 
from the roof, forming a junction with the stalagmitic bosses on the 
“table’’ (as shown at fig. 4); 
and on the top of the “table” 
there was found a tusk,- some 
bones, some large snail-shells, 
and pieces of charcoal, under an _ | 
incrustation of stalagmite. One ” 
of the workmen wondering what 
thickness the incrustation had 
attained on the “table,”’ struck 


18 feet. 
Fig. 3.—Transverse Section at G. 
c, open cave, 7 feet; 4, stalagmite, 4 inches ; 
a, and and gravel, bones, ete., 15 inches. 


18 feet. 
Fig. 4.—Transverse Section at H, showing 


his hack into it, and exhumed 
the above-mentioned relics to his 
no smallastonishment. Perhaps 
this is the first time that such a 


“Communion Table.’ e, ‘“‘ Communion 
Table; d, open cave, 4 feet 6 inches; ec, 
stalagmite, 2 or 3 inches; 4, sand, etc., 12 
inches; a, rock, 


discovery has been made “ on removing the cover.” 

The appearances of the deposit at F, fig. 1, and the great thick- 
ness of the stalagmite—ain places 6 and even 8 inches thick—shows that 
portion must have taken a greater length of time to form than the 
rest, which was only 2 to 4 inches, while from the absence of any 
bronze implements, I am led to consider it of more ancient date; the 
probability also is, that bone implements would cease to be used 
when metal ones were introduced. 

The general appearance, on entering the cave before it was de- 
molished, was very interesting and grand. The fine pendent stalac- 


GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 171 


tites from the roof; the various round bosses of stalagmite undu- 
lating over the floor; the gurgling of the cave-stream; and the 
momentary droppings of water from the crevices and joints of the 
rock, gave the place a very solemn and enchanting aspect. What 
changes in the manners and customs of the human race have taken 
place since the date of the cave-men! Were we to take a poetical 
or an imaginative view of the case, and picture to ourselves a few 
naked or half-naked human beings in the gloomy cavern, standing 
or sitting round a fire made of wood, and enveloped in its stinking 
smoke, with perhaps an animal’s skin flung round their bodies and 
secured by one of these very bone-pins we have found; making their 
rude repast of a boar which they had hunted down in the surround- 
ing forest, and the flesh of which they may have boiled in one of 
their coarse earthen pots, of which we have found such numerous 
fragments,—flayed too, probably, with those bone-knives which have 
thus strangely come down to us; poor creatures, who lived and died 
so long ago, that no Hume has chronicled the career of their race, and 
who probably had perished ere Cesar came to conquer: picture their 
condition of want, privation, and hardships, as compared with the 
plenty, the luxurious mode of living, and the high state of civiliza- 
tion which we now enjoy. What a contrast there is! But science 
does not sanction the play of the imagination, which is ever an un- 
safe guide. Well-ascertained facts and reliable observations are the 
data on which science rears the structures on which she plants her 
standards. But one can scarce refrain from speculation on a theme 
like this. 

In conclusion, I beg to tender my warmest thanks to W. H. 
Ware, Esq., Ashes House, near Stanhope, who kindly permitted me 
to have the use of the relics until their history was made out, as far 
as can be done; and also to thank Mr. Richard Cordner, Crawley 
House, near Stanhope, for the interest he took in the matter, in 
generously sending men to carry on the explorations.* 


West Croft, Stanhope, March 29th, 1862. 


GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 
Br Tuomas Grinpiey, Esq., oF GLOSSOP. 


While almost every week increases our knowledge of the geology 
of distant parts of the earth, there is one small island in the British 
seas, famed for its picturesque beauty, and peculiarly interesting on 
account of its historical associations, of the geological features of 
which very little is known, and even that little scarcely ever referred 
to in geological treatises. This may have arisen mainly from the 


* These further most interesting discoveries were kindly forwarded to me by Mr. 
Elliott with this letter, accompanied by plans—Ep. GEOL. 


172 THE GEOLOGIST. 


fact of there having been as yet no official survey of this island; while 
those portions of the geological series represented in the Manx rocks 
having been typically established from other localities, it did not 
seem to present geological features sufficiently novel or peculiar to 
require any special investigation. Still, in the earlier years of the 
science, several eminent geologists did describe, with greater or less 
minuteness, some of its geological appearances: for example, Profes- 
sor B. Forbes, who wrote a short account of Manx geology for one of 
the local guide-books; and a much more elaborate account was 
written by the Rev. J. G. Cumming, F.G.S., and published in 1848 ; 
but the rapid progress of the science, while it does not deprive these 
descriptions of all value, has in a great measure superseded them, 
and opened here a wide and almost untrodden field for the modern 
geologist. Having for several years resided on the island, and being 
convinced that many of the phenomena presented by the Manx rocks, 
if not altogether new to the geologist, are yet of remarkable interest, 
and capable of taking a great part in the solution of many of the 
problems which geologists are now endeavouring to solve, I have written 
the following brief account, with the view of diffusing, through the 
pages of the ‘ Geologist,’ a more general knowledge of the geology of 
the Isle of Man, and in the hope of attracting to the subject that at- 
tention which it deserves. 

Approaching the shores of the Isle of Man from the south-east, the 
whole of the island, with the exception of a sinall part of the north- 
west, too low to be distinguished at this distance, lies spread out be- 
fore us; first, like a long ridge of blue cloud resting upon the misty 
horizon, which, as the vessel brings us nearer, shapes itself into the 
mountains and valleys, the rocky coasts and the secluded bays, of 
green Mona. Right before us opens out the beautiful bay of Dou- 
glas, hemmed in by the lofty headlands of Douglas Head and Banks’s 
Howe, and relieved in the background by the highest peaks of the 
central range. Along the margin of the crescent-shaped bay, and 
capping the lofty ancient beach to the back of it, are numerous ele- 
gant buildings, the suburbs of the town, which itself hes clustered on 
a low triangular patch of alluvial land at the south extremity of the 
bay. Far away to the south we can distinguish in the distance the 
rocky islet of the Calf, with its numerous outliers, many of them 
worn by the waves of older seas into huge arches and long winding 
caverns, through which we may occasionally, even at this long way 
off, catch a glimpse of the bright sunlight. Between us and the 
Calf stretches a long line of rocky coast, with numerous tall promon- 
tories—Spanish Head, Scarlet Head, Langness, St. Ann’s Head, and 
others—rising precipitously out of the green water, whose roar, as it 
dashes against the rocky cliffs or rushes up the numerous caverns, 
falls upon our ear like the hoarse voice of old Ocean himself welcom- 
ing to the sea-girt gem before us. To the north, we look along a 
similar line of tall cliffs and sheltered bays, until the view is closed 
in by the wild promontory of Maughold Head, beyond which nothing 
is seen but the heaving restless sea, dotted here and there, it may be, 


GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. tyes; 


with a few fishing-boats, or darkened, perhaps, by the smoke of some 
passing steamer. Behind this long line of wild and picturesque 
coast rise the mountains of the great central range, occasional breaks 
in the tall coastline, as at Laxey, permitting us to see at a glance 
their vast proportions from their very bases to their cloud-capped 
summits. Far away in the north we can discern the sharp-peaked 
Barrule, and close to it the rounded head of the giant Snafield, appear- 
ing and disappearing as the wind drives the silvery mist across its 
grassy sides. Nearer still, we may mark the successive peaks of 
Bein-y-Phot, Garrachan, and Greebah. Directly in our front rises 
the pointed head of South Barrule, while in the south the range is 
continued through the sharp outlines of Irey-na-Lhaa, and the long 
swelling ridges of the Mull Hills to the Calf itself. We gaze loug 
and earnestly on the glorious combination of the sublime and beauti- 
ful before us; but we rapidly close in with the shore—the dark cliffs 
tower higher above our heads, and cast a broader shadow over the 
clear green waves; and suddenly rounding the southern corner of 
the bay, we fire a gun, which is responded to from the shore, and al- 
most at once we are in the midst of the throng and bustle of a fashion- 
able watering-place. 

The general axis of the island is from N.E. to S.W.: within 
this line rise the highest peaks of the mountain-range, and along its 
sides lie the upturned edges of the Manx rocks. At two points in 
this central axis the granite appears at the surface, probably in con- 
sequence of the overlying rocks having suffered extensive denudation 
—near the head of the Dhoon river, about half-way between Laxey 
and Ramsey, and on the eastern side of South Barrule. Between 
the granites of these two localities there is an essential difference, 
the Dhoon granite being a syenite, and of a much finer and firmer 
texture than that of Barrule. The granite of the latter locality is 
extensively quarried for economical purposes. 

Resting upon the granite is a series of slaty rocks, which, as we 
recede from the central axis, passes regularly through the successive 
stages of mica-schist, clay-slate, and grauwacke-slate. Respecting 
the exact geological age of these rocks it is extremely difficult to 
speak, the few organisms hitherto found in them consisting chiefly of 
some imperfectly-preserved fucoids and corals—very uncertain guides. 
Still, taking into account the character of the lower portion of the 
series, Which 1s undoubtedly metamorphic, and the regular passage 
into the upper and fossiliterous portion—and, further, from a compa- 
rison of the few fossils which have been found in this upper portion 
with those of other localities—it seems to be now admitted that the 
upper portion of these rocks is to be regarded as Lower Cambrian. 
One of the best-preserved of these organisms, obtained from the 
rocks of Douglas, and now in my own collection, has been lately 
identified by an eminent paleontologist as generically the same with 
an unnamed fucoid from the Cambrians of North Wales. These 
schists attain an enormous vertical development, probably not less 
than from 7000 to 10,000 feet. Their superficial development is also, 


174 THE GEOLOGIST‘. 


very extensive, extending over more than three-fourths of the whole 
island. Their strike is within a few degrees of N.E. and 8.W.— 
that is, parallel to the mountain-range—but the direction and inten- 
sity of their dip is very various. Sometimes they dip seaward, as in 
the north of Douglas Bay; at other places they dip landward, as in 
the south of Douglas Bay; and in other localities, again, they dip in 
an intermediate direction, as in about the centre of Douglas Bay. 
The average intensity of the dip of these rocks is very great. At Dou- , 
glas it varies from about 70° to 90°. At Langnessit is from about 60° 
to 80°; and at Port St. Mary, still further south, it is almost equally 
great. At the foot of Garrachan, in the centre of the island, it is 
from 50° to 60°. Upon these and numerous other similar data I 
have founded my estimate of the thickness of these rocks. Their 
composition and texture is also very varied. In contact with the 
granite, they are “completely metamorphosed, passing regularly 
through the stages of a gneissose rock and mica-schist into clav- and 
grauwacke-schist.” In the centre of the island they are chiefly mica- 
slate; near Peel they form a good roofing-slate; at Spanish Head 
they are so fibrous and tough as to be extensively quarried in lengths 
of six or eight feet for piles, door-posts, chimney-pieces, etc.; and 
about Douglas they become hard and splintery, and are much used 
for building purposes. In most of these rocks the cleavage is very 
imperfectly developed, and in others it does not appear at all. 

These rocks are exceedingly rich in metals—copper, lead, silver, 
zine, etc., being obtained. Several veins of lead and copper are 
profitably worked. The mines at Laxey, about halfway between 
Douglas and Ramsey, are especially noted. The vein runs nearly north 
and south, and “ contains copper-ore, lead-ore rich in silver, varying 
from eighty to a hundred and twenty ounces in the ton of lead,” 
and an ore of zine, locally termed “ Black Jack.” To drain these 
mines a monster wheel, 72 feet 6 inches in diameter, stated to be the 
largest wheel of the kind in the world, is employed. Another mine, 
nearly equally important in its operations, is worked at Foxdale, near 
Peel. The lead obtained from this locality also contains a large 
amount of silver, though not nearly so much as is obtained from the 
Laxey ore. A third very extensive mine for copper and lead is 
worked on Brada Head, about one mile from Port Erin, in the 8.W. 
of the island; and numerous other mines of greater or less impor- 
tance have been in operation at different times. Many of these are 
now abandoned, but it is more from the lack of funds than from the 
exhaustion of the metals. This want of necessary funds has also 
prevented the opening of new veins of great richness which are 
known to exist. Whether the quartz-rocks associated with this 
series contain gold is a question of practical importance which we do 
not here pretend to solve. Having, however, a due regard to the 
generalizations of Sir Roderick Murchison respecting the gold-bear- 
ing rocks, and to the experience of the last few years in various parts 
of the world, especially in North Wales and other parts of the British 
Islands, it seems to us as not at all improbable that a careful search 


GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 175 


by practical men would be rewarded by the discovery of gold in re- 
munerative quantities. Garnets, of a small size, are found at Greeba. 

Resting upon the upturned edges of the older schists are found, on 
both sides of the island, some very interesting deposits of the Devo- 
nian period. Of the intervening Silurian beds but few traces now 
remain’among the Manx rocks. Of their former existence, however, 
we have satisfactory proof in the fact that water-worn pebbles of 
Silurian age, containing characteristic fossils, enter largely into the 
composition of the overlying Old Red, particularly near Peel. The 
Devonian rocks lie unconformably upon the underlying Cambrian 
schists. At Langness, where this unconformability of the two series 
of rocks is beautifully exhibited, while their strike 1s almost identical, 
their dip is opposed—the schists dipping 8.E. at a high angle, and 
the overlying Old Red dipping N.W. at an angle, in this place, 
almost equally high. They attain their greatest development to the 
north of the central ridge near Peel, being there several hundred feet 
thick, — principally of a workable sandstone. The venerable castle 
and a great part of the town of Peel are built of it; but it forms a 
very indifferent building material, being very soft, and decomposing 
rapidly by the action of the atmosphere. It is in the southern basin, 
however, near the ruins of Rushen Abbey, and along the west coast 
of Langness, that the rocks of this formation present their most in- 
teresting features, and where their relations to the underlying schists 
and the overlying limestone can be best observed. Proceeding along 
the western shore of Langness, the schists, here of a deep claret 
colour, are seen underlying the Old Red, and dipping inland (S.E.) 
at a high angle, much contorted; while the Old Red itself dips sea- 
ward (N.W.) at an angle equally high. The junction of the Old Red 
with the overlying limestone is not well developed in this locality, still 
by a little careful management it may be traced in the north-eastern 
corner of the bay, and the direction and intensity of their dip may 
be seen to be identical. The Old Red, as developed in this locality, 
is a coarse conglomerate of quartz and other pebbles, many of them 
of considerable size, enclosed in a red clayey matrix. It attains a 
considerable thickness, but, so far as my own observations extend, 
contains no fossils. It is possibly the equivalent of the conglomerate 
beds of the typical “ Old Red” of Herefordshire, etc. 

Further inland, near the ruins of Rushen Abbey, founded in 1184 
by the Cistercian monks of Furness, we may trace the passage of the 
Devonian beds into the overlying Carboniferous limestone with 
greater accuracy. The conglomerate has here lost its characteristic 
red colour, and appears as a thin bed of very small white quartz 
pebbles in a limy matrix, enclosing the characteristic fossils, princi- 
pally Orthis Sharpei, of the lowest Carboniferous rocks. About a 
mile higher up the Silverburn, near Athol Bridge, the passage of this 
grey conglomerate into the dark limestones and shales of the lower 
Carboniferous beds may be distinctly traced. The same appearances 
are also very clearly seen in ascending the Brough, a low hill over- 
looking the romantic valley of the Santonsburn, about two miles 


176 THE GEOLOGIST. 


N.. of Castletown, where the Old Red is seen resting unconform- 
ably upon the slaty schists as a conglomerate of quartz and Silurian 
pebbles, enclosed first in a deep red clayey matrix, then in a grey 
calcareous one, and then passing conformably into the dark lime- 
stone above. 

Resting conformably upon the Old Red conglomerate are the lower 
beds of the Carboniferous limestone, and with such regularity does 
the transition take place, that the characteristic fossils of the one 
formation are found mingled with those of the other. The Carboni- 
ferous limestone is now found only in the south of the island, but it 
formerly existed in the north, near Peel; and there is evidence of its 
continuance below low-water mark off the Peel coast. 

In the south it covers an area of about twelve square miles, com- 
prehending the whole of the S.E. corner of the island from Coshna- 
hawin, near the mouth of the Santonsburn, round the coast to Per- 
wick Bay, a little south of Port St. Mary, thence along a line of fault 
inland to Athol Bridge, and from Athol Bridge to Coshnahawin Head, 
with the exception of the southern extremity of Langness. Through- 
out the whole of this extensive area the limestone immediately under- 
lies the superficial covering of Drift clay, etc., and in this locality, 
particularly along the coast from Coshnahawin Head to Port St. 
Mary, the phenomena of limestone deposits may be studied with 
great adventage. 

The differences of composition, texture, and colour among the 
different limestone beds of this area are very great. Thus at Derby- 
haven and Port St. Mary on the coast, and at Ballasalla in the inte- 
rior, the limestone is very dark in colour, extremely hard, and makes 
a remarkably useful lime for agricultural and other purposes ; while 
the limestone from Poolvash, in the centre of the basin, is very 
light coloured, rather soft, and is not equally convertible into lime. 
In other parts it is altered by the intrusion of Trap rock into a pure 
dolomite, as at Searlet and Strandhall. In the N.E. corner of Cas- 
tletown Bay it is of a brown arenaceous character, and highly erystal- 
lized in texture. A comparison of the fossil contents of these beds 
also indicates great differences in the physical conditions under which 
they were deposited. In the dark-coloured limestone of Derby- 
haven, ete., organic remains are comparatively rare, while in the 
light-coloured they are, in most places, so numerous as to form fully 
two-thirds of the substance of the rock itself, and to give it its cha- 
racteristic light colour. Out of a list of 222 species of Manx Car- 
boniferous fossils published by Mr. Cumming, only 76 species are 
found in the lower or dark limestone, while 153 are found in the 
upper or light-coloured beds. Further, these two series of rocks 
“have comparatively few species in common, and those which are 
common are mostly such as have a great vertical range.” Out of 
the 222 species collected by Mr. Cumming, only 30 or 7-4 of the 
whole are common to the two series of rocks. Hence Mr. Cumming, 
when investigating these beds in 1848, was led to divide the lower 
member of the Manx Carboniferous rocks into two groups—the upper 


: 
a 
a 
G 
| 
: 


GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 177 


or light-coloured limestone of Poolvash, and the lower or dark- 
coloured limestone of Derbyhaven, etc. The list of the Manx Car- 
boniferous fossils upon which this subdivision of the Manx limestone 
into two groups is principally based, is of course very far from being 
complete; we have in our own collection several not included in it, 
and undoubtedly a more careful search would disclose many more ; 
while several designated in it as species have since been reduced to 
the condition of mere varieties. Yet, on the whole, it is a trust- 
worthy record, and the minute observations accompanying it are 
carefully made and generally accurate; we feel, therefore, no diffi- 
culty in accepting this proposed division of the lower portion of the 
Manx Carboniferous limestone into at least two distinct groups. 

Subsequent to the deposition of the Poolvash beds a great change 
seems to have taken place in the physical condition of this part of the 
southern basin. The strata were violently disturbed along a line of 
fault parallel, or nearly so, with the present coast-line, and a consi- 
derable outburst of trap took place, which has greatly altered the 
underlyirg limestone, in some places converting it into pure dolomite. 
The extreme violence of this outburst, however, seems to have soon 
abated, after which the voleanic ash was poured out so quietly as 
not to interfere to any great extent with the ordinary operations of 
organic life—organic remains being found imbedded in it as regu- 
larly as in the limestone. At the same time that this submarine 
eruption was thus forming in one part of the basin a thick bed of 
voleanic ash, a deposit of black carbonaceous mud was also being 
formed in another part, and these two dissimilar sources by ming- 
ling have formed a very curious and interesting rock, one or other 
of the two ingredients predominating according to the varying cir- 
cumstances of the case. “At one period the carbonaceous deposit 
seems to have entirely prevailed ; perhaps the volcanic action entirely 
ceased, gathering strength for a subsequent eruption. The bed then 
formed has its own lithological character and fossils; it is the black 
Poolvash marble.’ After a time, however, this period of quiet de- 
posit was abruptly terminated, and the volcanic action renewed with 
increased violence ; the trappean and mixed beds already formed were 
violently broken up, reduced to a fragmentary condition, and mixed 
up with a fresh outpouring of volcanic matter; and a sort of “trap 
breccia’? was formed, in which the imbedded fragments of the older 
rocks are considerably altered by heat. 

Such is a brief and very imperfect account, agreeing mainly with 
Mr. Cumming’s, of a remarkably interesting series of rocks over- 
lying the Manx Carboniferous limestone. Commencing near the 
Siack of Scarlet, a huge mass of columnar basalt, insulated at high 
water and forming the S.W. horn of Castletown Bay, stretching 
along the south coast to Poolvash Bay, a distance of about two miles, 
they include, in addition to the imbedded limestone of pure or mixed 
origin, almost every variety of igneous trap, from the light porous 
ash to the hard columnar basalt, and present an appearance wild and 
rugged beyond description. 

ayer Is. VW; 2A 


178 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The strike of the underlying limestone is nearly due north and 
south, and the dip is to the west, at a generally low angle. In some 
places the tuff underlies the “ black marble,” sometimes 1t overlies 
it: in some places again they are interstratified, while in others they 
form beds of a mixed character. In all, the characteristic fossils are 
found. The black marble is remarkable as containing the only traces 
of coal-plants found on the island, several species of terns, calamites, 
and lepidodendra having been found init. This marble admits of a 
high polish, and is extensively quarried for architectural and other 
purposes. Here the palozoic series of the Isle of Man terminates. 
From these rocks, evidently belonging to the lower beds of the coal- 
measures, to the clays and gravels of the Pleistocene group, there is 
a great gap, which we have little hope of ever being able to fill; 
either the intervening deposits have never had an existence here, 
which is the more probable, or else they have been completely de- 
nuded and no trace of them now remains. Of the history of this 
vast period we are not, however, altogether ignorant, several of the 
numerous faults and dykes found in different parts clearly belonging 
to it; and we are thus, by tracing their effects, able to gather a few 
meagre particulars respecting the nature of operations which would 
otherwise have escaped all notice. 

Crossing these tufaceous beds and parallel to them are trap dykes, 
which in their passage through them and the subjacent limestone 
have greatly dislocated and contorted the strata. The interesting 
question thus arises, what effect, if any, these igneous intrusions 
had upon these beds? Again, in the north of the peninsula of 
Langness there is an enormous development of greenstone, and the 
peninsula is crossed in all directions by numerous greenstone dykes, 
one of them more than forty feet broad, where it emerges from under 
the schists. The peninsula itself is a mass of Cambrian schists, 
once undoubtedly covered by Devonian and Carboniferous deposits, 
but of which its central and eastern parts are now completely de- 
nuded. What connection was there between these igneous intrusions 
and the elevation of the peninsula, one consequence of which was 
the denudation of these later beds? But leaving these and many 
other similar speculations respecting the possible or probable effects 
of the numerous faults and dykes which cross many parts of the 
island hke network, we come to notice more particularly a great line 
of fault which has undoubtedly played a conspicuous part in the later 
geological history of the island. This great fault extends from Per- 
wick Bay, half a mile south of Port St. Mary, in a north-eastwardly 
direction, through Port St. Mary, Strandhall, and Athol Bridge, and 
cuts off abruptly all the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks. To the 
north-west of this line are the Cambrian schists, dipping, at an 
angle of varying intensity, to the south. To the south-east of it 
are the lower beds of the Carboniferous limestone, dipping, at a very 
low angle, to the east. The uplift is consequently to the north-west 
of this line. Its value cannot, with the scanty facts respecting it in 
our possession, be accurately estimated; but it must have been very 


GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 179 


great, as it includes the whole of the Manx Carboniferous series, the 
Devonian conglomerate, and a considerable portion of the underlying 
schists. Subsequent to the production of this great fault, in w hat- 
ever portion of the missing series it took place, a great ‘denuding 
force passed over the island, sweeping away the whole of the uplifted 
rocks to the north of the fault, and reducing both its sides to the 
same uniform level. Of this long-continued period of denudation, we 
have additional evidence in various other parts of the island ; on Lang- 
ness, in the neighbourhood of Coshnahawin Head, ete., and particu- 
larly in the neighbourhood of Douglas Bay, where we have developed 
the uppermost beds of the clay-schists, contaiming fossils which iden- 
tify them with equivalent strata in other localities; these show dis- 
tinctly marks of very extensive denudation. It is highly probable 
that the granite on the east side of Barrule was laid bare at that 
epoch, granitic pebbles appearing for the first time, so far as is known, 
in the Pleistocene gravels. That this denudation took place before 
the deposition of the Pleistocene beds, we have the most distinct 
proof in these beds resting in an undisturbed position along the line 
of the great fault. 

The superficial deposits of the Isle of Man are, in many respects, 
peculiarly well developed, and at the present time are remarkably in- 
teresting. We have first a very thick deposit of boulder-clay, con- 
taining numerous boulders of quartz, etc., occasionally of large size; 
this is succeeded by alternating beds of sand and gravel, enclosing 
enormous boulders of both native and foreign extraction. Connected 
with these beds are two series of remarkable low hills, one in the 
south of the island extending from the mouth of the Santon’s Burn, 
in a south-west direction, towards the mountain-range, and the other, 
northerly, stretching “ from Point Cranstal to Blue Head.” Their 
general direction is almost parallel to the central range, and also to 
the direction of the glacial currents, as exhibited by the groovings 
and scratchings in the underlying rocks. They consist of the clay, 
sand, and gravel of the Boulder formation, in the usual order: first, 
the clay of the colour of the underlying rocks, and containing frag- 
ments of them partially rounded ; then sandy gravel, much of which 
is of foreign origin; and lastly, the Drift gravel, often enclosing large 
boulders of limestone, granite, etc. This order is well developed in 
the banks of the Silverburn, near the Creggans. Mount Strange, or 
Hango Hill, as it is more commonly called, at the head of Castletown 
Bay, is another interesting relic of the Boulder- clay formation. It 
rises about twenty feet above high-water, and consists of the Drift- 
clay enclosing numerous boulders of limestone, granite, quartz, etc., 
many of large size. I measured one, of dark-coloured limes stone, 
probably from Derbyhaven, and found it almost three feet across each 
way. lLalso obtained from the clay at this spot, a number of shells 
of the Boreal type, mostly in good preservation. This cliff is crowned 
with the ruins of the old place of execution, three fragments of the 
walls of which still remain, built of limestone, about a foot anda 
half thick. It is rapidly wasting away, and at the present rate a few 


180 THE GEOLOGIST. 


years will witness its complete destruction. Some very interesting 
historical associations are connected with this spot, and the readers 
of Scott will regard it with increased interest when they remember 
that William Christian, of Ronaldsmay, was shot here in 1662, for 
surrendering the island to Cromwell’s army. 

Tc this period also beloug the numerous natural arches and caves 
found along the coast ; probably, however, most of them belong 
mainly to the later portion of the Pleistocene age. They are found 
on all parts of the island, wherever the nature of the coast-line was 
favourable to their formation. Many of them run considerable dis- 
tances into the cliffs, frequently winding tortuously; in other in- 
stances they are merely deep straight chambers in the rocks. They 
are usually but little elevated above the existing high-water mark, 
and appear to contain only the ordinary shingle and sand of the 
neighbouring shore. The most remarkable of these arches and caves 
are those on the western side of Langness. The rocks there are 
greatly dislocated by the intrusion of several greenstone dykes, two 
of which intersect at this spot, and the strata thus weakened have 
yielded to the action of the waves, an extensive series of arches and 
caves having been the result. One of the most remarkable of these 
is an arch about twenty-six feet wide, fifteen feet high, and eighteen 
feet deep. The floor and walls are composed of slaty schists, here of 
a deep claret-colour, thrown up at a high angle, and much contorted 
by the neighbouring greenstone ; the roof is formed of the Old Red 
conglomerate, which is of the characteristic deep red colour, and rests 
almost horizontally upon the edges of the upturned schists. This 
arch stands a few feet above high-water mark, but it is evidently only 
the relics of what was once a vast cavern, extending far below the 
level of the sea. Its sides (the lower portion consisting of the con- 
torted schists, and the upper of the coarse conglomerate) extend 
seaward from thirty to forty yards beyond the arch itself, a great part 
of this being below high-water, and the partially enclosed space much 
encumbered with huge masses of fallen conglomerate, evidently the 
débris of the broken roof. Several others of the series equal, if they 
do not even exceed, this one in magnitude. One in particular, 
roughly measured by pacing, in its entire state would have been a 
cave fully sixty yards deep,—twenty yards of its depth being below 
high-water,—ten yards wide, and, at its upper end, eight yards high. 
At its upper extremity it is still covered with a root for about twenty- 
five feet, and its walls are there nearly thirty feet high, sloping thence 
down to the water. These caves and arches present many features 
of great interest, and are deserving of a fuller investigation. The 
occurrence also in this locality of the Cambrian schists, the Devonian 
conglomerate, and the Carboniferous limestone, in their characteristic 
positions, together with the numerous greeustone dykes, make Lang- 
ness, to the geologist, one of the most interesting spots to be found 
in the whole island; while the wild and rocky nature of its coast, 
and the many picturesque views to be obtained from it of the beau- 
tiful bay and neighbourhood of Castletown, cause it to be a favourite 
place of resort for both natives and visitors. 


GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN, 181 


Another excellent locality for the study of these arches and caves, 
is the coast about the mouth of the Santon’s Burn, two miles N.E. of 
Castletown. As at Langness, the strata are much disturbed by the 
intrusions of greenstone, and, in consequence, several magnificent 
arches and a number of moderately-sized caves have been hollowed 
out in the rocks. Some interesting specimens may also be found at 
Port Soderic, a small inlet of great beauty about four miles south of 
Douglas; at Spanish Head and the Calf, where are some splendid 
grottos, and where the remarkable one called the “ Hye” deserves 
particular notice; also at Peel, where many small but interesting 
caves have been scooped out of the Old Red conglomerate. 

The organic remains found in these deposits are of the usual 
character. In the Boulder-clay, fragments of the bones of cetaceans, 
etc., have been found; and in the clays and sands, shells belonging 
to existing species are found in great abundance, “the most frequent 
species being Tellina solidula, Venus cassina, Astarte Scotica, and 
Turritella ter ebra.” 

The phenomena of the Drift period may.be well studied in the 
great valley which crosses the middle of the island, between Douglas 
and Peel, and in most of the side-valleys communicating with it, par- 
ticularly Spring valley and the valley of West Baldwin ; also in the 
flat districts of the north, and in many of the valleys of the south. 
In some of these localities, and especially in various parts of the 
great central valley, the successive elevations of the post-glacial sea- 
bettom may be very distinctly traced, until, in very recent times, it 
assumed its present level. In very recent times, geologically, the 
sea entered this valley at both its extremities, and it was drained 
finally by an alteration of the sea-level, which was probably the last 
that affected to any great extent the physical condition of the island ; 
an event which seems to have taken place within the traditional age, 
if the name of the former residence of the Duke of Athol—Port-e- 
chee, the haven of peace—or the assertion of the inhabitants of Dou- 
glas, that the land is even now gaining upon the sea, may be received 
as evidence. On the low alluvial land laid bare at the mouth of the 
Douglas by this latest alteration of sea-level, the old town of Douglas 
is built, and the imhabitants state that within memory the sea has 
retired a considerable distance, and that houses which, when built, 
were close to high-water mark, are now at some distance from it. So 
small was this uprise, and so inconsiderable is the elevation of this 
valley above the existing sea-level, that a very slight depression of the 
land would again cover it with the waters of the sea, and again divide 
the island into two or more portions. This valley is drained on its 
eastern declivity by the Douglas, and on its western by the Neb, both 
of which rise close beside each other near St. John’s, and so incon- 
siderable is the height of their sources, that the cutting away of a 
foot or two of turf in this spot, would cause the Neb to flow eastward 
to Douglas, or make the Douglas flow westward to Peel. 

In connection with these oscillations of sea-level, we may also 
notice the fact, that in the south of the island, near Strandhall, be- 


182 THE GEOLOGIST. 


tween high- and low-water, is a bed of turf “about a foot thick, with 
the trunks of trees, chiefly ash and fir, standing upright, and their 
roots running down into the alluvial blue sandy marl. These roots 
may be traced for several feet, and it is plain that ‘here they lived 
and died.’”? Mr. Cumming states, in 1848, that he has in his pos- 
session one of these tree-stumps, bearing upon it “ marks ofa hatchet ;” 
and he further records, on what he considers unquestionable testi- 
mony, that during a violent storm in 1827, the sands at a spot alittle 
to the west of Strandhall were swept away, and a vast number of 
trunks, some erect and others overthrown towards the sea, were 
exposed, and that “the foundations of a primitive hut” were laid bare, 
together with some “ antique, uncouth-looking imstruments.” These 
facts, taken in connection with the traditions respecting the presence 
of the sea at Port-e-chee, are of the highest importance in their bear- 
ings upon the great question of the antiquity of the human race, and 
would, if properly authenticated, establish the fact of great physical 
changes having passed over the island during the human epoch. The 
subject is certainly deserving of further investigation. 

Additional evidence of these successive uprises of the land exists 
at different parts of the coast in the shape of ancient beaches and 
beds of gravel at various elevations. Good examples of both may be 
found in the neighbourhood of Douglas. The old town itself is built 
upon the last-raised beach, and in digging for building or other pur- 
poses, a considerable thickness of fine sand is passed through, identical 
with that now found on the adjacent shore, and often containing 
fragments of bones much decomposed. Behind this most recent of 
the raised beaches there rises to a considerable height all round the 
bay a much more ancient one, in some places consisting of the under- 
lying slaty schists, and in others—near Castle Mona, for instance— 
of thick beds of fine sand, similar to that composing the present 
beach. 

In the interior and in the north of the island, particularly at St. 
John’s, between Douglas and Peel, and at Ballaugh, between Peel 
and Ramsey, are extensive marl-beds, in which fragments, and occa- 
sionally whole skeletons, of the great Irish—or rather Manx elk, as it 
is asserted that the first specimen of this gigantic animal was disco- 
vered here, and not in Ireland—are found. The most perfect speci- 
men known was found in a marl-pit at Ballaugh, in 1819, at a depth 
of eighteen feet, and was presented by the Duke of Athol to the 
University of Edinburgh; a magnificent head and horns from the 
same place is now in the British Museum. These marls are full of 
fresh-water shells of existing species, and occasionally become a true 
shell-marl. 

Resting upon these marls, and filling up the hollows of most of the 
upland valleys, are extensive peat-bogs of great thickness. They 
contain great quantities of trunks of trees, principally pines and 
oaks, proving the fact—of which, indeed, we have frequent notice in 
Manx history—of the woody character of the island in former times. 
This peat, owing to the want of coal in the island, is of great value, 
and is very extensively used by the natives as fuel. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 183 


Near Spanish Head the rocks are rent by twelve perpendicular 
fissures of unknown depth, opening out towards the sea, and dividing 
the headland into huge pyramidal and conical masses, “ which over- 
hang the shore,” and seem ready on the slightest disturbance to fall 
headlong into the waves beneath. “In one of these recesses, which 
penetrates many hundred yards into the solid rock, isa circle of 
erect stones, appearing to have been a Druidical temple, for which, 
from the solitude and sublimity of the situation, no place could be 
more appropriate.” These “chasms” are probably the effects of an 
earthquake in very early times. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Grotoetcat Socrery oF Lonpon.— March 19.—The Papers were 

1. ‘On the Sandstones, and their associated deposits, in the Valley of 
the Eden, the Cumberland Plain, and the South-east of Dumfriesshire.” 
By Prof. R. Harkness, F.R.S., F.G.S. Having defined the area occupied 
by these sandstones, breccias, clays, and flagstones, and referred to the 
published memoirs in which some notices of these deposits have been 
given by Buckland, Sedgwick, Phillips, and Binney, the author described, 
Ist, a section near Kirkby-Stephen, across the vale of the Eden, where 
two breccias, separated by sandy clay-beds, underlie sandstones of con- 
siderable thickness; 2ndly, a section across Eden Vale from Great Orm- 
side to Roman Fell, in which the breccias, associated with sandstones, 
form a mass 2000 feet thick, and are succeeded by thin sandstones, shales 
(with fossils), and thin limestone, altogether about 160 feet, and next by 
sandstones 700 feet thick. This is the typical section; the fossiliferous 
shales are regarded by Prof. Harkness as equivalent to the Permian Marl- 
slate of Durham; they contain (at Hilton Beck) remains of Conifere, 
Neuropteris, Sphenopteris, Weissites (?), Caulerpites selaginoides (?), Cu- 
pressites Ullinani (?), Voltzia Phillipsii (?), Cyathocrinus ramosus, and 
Terebratula elongata. The breccias and sandstone beneath, previously 
recognized as Permian, are here referred to the Rothlegende; and the 
sandstones above are regarded as belonging to the Trias. Detailed de- 
scriptions of the sandstones and breccias in the country between Great 
Ormside and Penrith were then given, and the gypseous character of the 
clays at Long Martin and Townsend noticed. In the section across the 
vale of the Eden from the west of Penrith to Hartside Fell, the Permian 
breccias, sandstone, and flags are nearly 5000 feet thick, but the clay series 
is poorly represented. North of Penrith the flagstones bear foot-marks 
(at Brownrigg) like those of Corncockle Muir. Mr. Harkness next de- 
scribed several sections of these Permian rocks in the western Westmore- 
land; and traced them to the other side of the Solway Forth, in Dum- 
friesshire (as described in former papers). Some remarks on the relations 
of the Permian beds of Cumberland and Westmoreland with those of St. 
Bee’s Head, near Whitehaven, and those of Annandale and Nithdale, 
concluded the paper. 

2. “On the Date of the Last Elevation of the Central Valley of 
Scotland.” By Archibald Geikie, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. After alluding to 
the position and nature of the raised beach which, at the height of from 
20 to 30 feet above the present high-water-mark, fringes the coast-line of 


184 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Scotland, the author proceeded to describe the works of art which had 
been found io it. From their occurrence in beds of elevated silt and sand, 
containing layers of marine shells, it was evident that the change of level 
had been effected since the commencement of the human period. The 
character of the remains likewise proved that the elevation could not be 
assigned to so ancient a time as the Stone Period of the archeologist. The 
canoes which had from time to time been exhumed from the upraised 
deposits of the Clyde at Glasgow clearly showed that at the time when at 
least the more finished of them were in use, the natives of this part of 
Scotland were acquainted with the use of bronze, if not of iron. The 
remains found in the corresponding beds of the Forth estuary lkewise 
indicated that there had been an upheaval long after the earlier races had 
settled in the country, and that the mevement was subsequent to the 
employment of iron. From the Firth of Tay similar evidence was adduced 
to indicate an upheaval possibly as recent as the time of the Roman occu- 
pation. The author then cited several antiquaries who, from a considera- 
tion of the present position of the Roman remains in Scotland, had inferred 
a considerable change in the aspect of the coast-line since the earlier 
centuries of the Christian era. He pointed out also several circumstances 
in relation to these Roman relies, which tended to show a change of level, 
and he referred to the discovery of Roman pottery in a point of the raised 
beach at Leith. The conclusion to which the evidence led him was, that 
since the first century of our era the central parts of Scotland, from the 
Clyde to the Forth and the Tay, had risen to a height of from 20 to 25 
feet above their present level. 

April 2, 1862.—The following communications were read :— 

1. “On some Remains of Chiton from the Mountain-limestone of York- 
shire.” By J. W. Kirkby, Esq. 

These remains consist of eight separate plates of four species of Chiton, 
found by Mr. Burrow, of Settle, i the Lower Scar Limestone of that 
neighbourhood. These new species, determined by Mr. Kirkby, are 
Chiton Burrowianus, Kirkby, Ch. coloratus, Kirkby, two species unde- 
termined, and a trace of Chitonellus(?). These appear to be the first 
Chitons observed in the Carboniferous limestone of England ; but fourteen 
others, and a Chitonellus, have been found in strata of the same age in 
Belgium and elsewhere, and have been described by Minster, De Koninck, 
and De Ryckholt. 

2. “On some Fossil Reptilia, of the Order Ganocephala, from the 
Coal-measures of the South Joggins, Nova Scotia.” By Professor Owen, 
F.R.S., F.G.S. 

The specimens described in this communication were (together with 
remains of Xy/obius and Pupa) obtained by Dr. Dawson, F.G.S., in 1861, 
from two fossil stumps of trees, and were referred to in his communication 
read before the Society on November 6, 1861. Professor Owen has deter- 
mined among the specimens submitted to him the following small Reptilian 
forms—ITylonomus Lyelli, Dawson, H. aciedentatus, Dawson, H. Wymani, 
Dawson, Hylerpeton Dawsoni (nov. gen. et sp.), Owen, and Dendrerpeton 
Acadianum, Owen. 

3. ‘On the Occurrence of Mesozoic and Permian Faune in Eastern 
Australia.” By the Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.G.S. 

Mr. W.P. Gordon having been requested by the Rev. W. B. Clarke to 
searcli for fossils in his neighbourhood (between the Balonne and Maranoa 
Rivers) and in the Fitzroy Downs, Queensland, was successful in making 
a large collection of specimens at the Wollumbilla Creek. These he sent 
to Mr. Clarke, who forwarded them to Professor M‘Coy, at Melbourne, 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 185 


for his examination. They prove to be chiefly of Lower Mesozoic genera ; 
there are also a few (from the Fitzroy Downs, about thirteen miles to the 
N.W.) which belong to lower beds. Some fossils long since obtained from 
the Mantuan Downs (200 mies N. of Wollumbilla) prove to be of Per- 
mian character (Awlosteges or Strophalosia). Productus and Cyathocrinus 
(Carboniferous ?) have been met with on the Dawson River. 

Mr. Clarke considers his unfossiliferous Wianamatta Beds, above the 
coal-measures, near Sydney, as being probably the equivalent of the fos- 
siliferous strata at Wollumbilla Creek. Professor M‘Coy regards the 
latter as belonging to the same formation as the coal-beds with Glossopteris. 
The fossils are included in the Catalogue of the Products of New South 
Wales for exhibition in London in 1862. 

4. “On the Footprint of an Zguanodon, lately found at Hastings.” By 
A. Tylor, Esq., F.G.S. 

After alluding to former accounts of fossil footprints (and natural casts 
of footprints) found in the cliffs near Hastings, and having stated that 
Dr. Harwood in 1846 suspected these prints to have been due to the 
Iguanodon, the author described a large three-toed footprint, 21 inches 
long, by 93 in-width, lately exposed by a fall at East Cliff. A cast of 
this print was exhibited by Mr. C. J. Mann. Mr. Tylor alluded to Pro- 
fessor Owen's figure of the bones of the three-toed foot of an Iguanodon 
as illustrative of a foot capable of producing such imprints as those re- 
ferred to. The author then showed, by a newly-constructed section of the 
Hastings coast, that the footprints occur in at least two zones of the 
Wealden beds,—one of them being just above the chief sandstone (or 
Castle Sandrock) of Hastings, and dippimg down to the west on the top 
of the Bexhill cliffs ; the other zone being about 100 feet below, as already 
pointed out by Mr. Beckles, near Lee Ness. 

Mecnantcs’ Institutz, RicHmMonp, YorKsSHIRE.—1st April._—Mr. Ed- 
ward Wood, F.G.S., the president of the Institute, delivered a lecture 
in the Town Hall on “ Coal, Coalpits, and Pitmen,” to a densely crowded 
audience. The lecture had been originally announced for the benefit only 
of the members of the institute, and to be given in their own room, but 
at the solicitation of the Mayor, Mr. Wood consented to deliver it in the 
Town Hall, for the benefit of all, whether members or not. The Mayor 
(Mr. G. Smurthwaite, jun.) took the chair. 

Mr. Wood commenced by a short but very telling description of the 
state of the globe prior to the time when the Carboniferous series was 
deposited, in the upper part of which the coal-measures are placed. These 
were then described, and the geographical conditions of the British region 
in the Coal-era. ‘‘ Our coal-fields,” said the lecturer, ‘‘ are so circumscribed 
that, if the consumption of coal goes on increasing in the same ratio that 
it has been doing of late, namely, doubling itself in twenty years, we shall 
exhaust all the workable coal in the British Isles in less than five hundred 
years hence. ‘This was a most important consideration, for how much of 
our country’s greatness did we not owe to coal? Besides our machinery 
(all driven by coal), we derived heat and light from it. And from coal also, 
our chemists, especially Professor Hoffman and Mr. Perkin, have lately 
learned to derive new and beautiful dyes—mauve, magenta, solferino, and 
others. Gas-tar was, till within a few years ago, considered worse than 
useless—to touch it was to be defiled ; but our chemists now extracted the 
sweetest of perfumes and the most elegant of colours, which, after being 
concealed in the earth’s recesses for countless ages pist, are now brought 
out bright enough to gladden the hearts of the cardinals at Rome, im- 
portant enough to have materially influenced the fashion-leaders of the day, 

WO. V: 2B 


186 THE GEOLOGIST. 


and brilliant enough to give a lustre even to the cheek of beauty.” With 
the assistance of a ground-plan of colliery workings, Mr. Wood explained 
the wonders of a pit, with its upcast shaft, its downcast shaft, its furnaces, 
engines, its cages and its levels, the wonderful and yet simple history of 
its ventilation, the mode of winning the coal, the colliers as they worked. 
It is the habit too much, the lecturer said, to blame colliery proprietors for 
carelessness. He believed that great and vigilant care was used, if not 
alone from the sense of right and duty yet at all events from the fear of 
accidents, which were destructive to property in a manner ruinous in the 
extreme. Legislative interference was, he believed, too much and some- 
what ignorantly asked for. Our colliery population Mr. Wood estimated 
at 1,500,000, of whom 400,000 were men and boys actually employed in 
the pits. Mr. Wood described most feelingly and eloquently the daring 
and endurance of the men who, day after day, worked purely from the love 
for their fellow-men, to rescue their poor comrades at the late accident at 
Hartley. He then detailed with most engaging particularity the objects 
to be seen within the collier’s cottage, throughout which there was mar- 
vellous, almost painful, neatness and cleanliness. The collier’s wife never 
thinks of reducing her fire ; her room is always at a roastiig temperature ; 
and when at last nature can no longer stand it, she opens the door, and 
this constantly, be it winter or summer. Mr. Wood concluded his lecture 
with some very amusing anecdotes. 

MancueEster Grotocicat Socrety.— February 25.—The propriety of 
forming a local fund for the relief of widows dependent upon coal-miners 
Jalled or hurt, was the subject of some discussion. The papers read 
were :—1l. “On Mr. Aytoun’s Patent Safety Cage for Miners.” By Mr. 
J. J. Landale, Mining Engineer, Edinburgh. 2. ‘On the Gases met 
with in Coal-Mines, and the General Principles of Ventilation.” By J.J. 
Atkinson, Esq., H. M. Inspector of Mines for the South Durham district. 

Liverroot Geroroeican Socrery.—Marech 24th.—The _ president, 
Henry Duckworth, F.L.S., F.G.S., read a paper “On Flint Implements 
from the Drift; being a description of a visit to Amiens and Abbeville 
during the summer of 1861.” 

Mr. Duckworth did not discover any worked flints himself, but he exhi- 
bited several very characteristic specimens, some of them being obtained 
from the quarrymen, and others presented to him by Monsieur Boucher 
de Perthes and Monsieur Pinsard. Mr. Duckworth also exhibited a 
human skull, which he disinterred from the brick-earth bed, in what was 
stated to be a somewhat unusual position. The paper was illustrated by 
drawings of sections, ete. In conclusion, Mr. Duckworth remarked that 
in examining these Drift beds both at Amiens and Abbeville, but more 
especially at the former place, it seemed to him that they must have been 
deposited very rapidly. There is no evidence whatever, so far as he could 
judge, of any very slow or gradual formation; and the impression left 
upon his mind was that they have been produced by some sharp and 
sudden catastrophe. : 

“On the Strata of the Storeton Quarries, near Liverpool.” By G. H. 
Morton, F.G.S. 

_After referring to the Keuper formation as it oecurs near the town of 
Liverpool, the strata of Storeton (in Cheshire) were described as belonging 
to the lower part of that formation. The base is a conglomerate, several 
feet thick; strata of white and yellow sandstone with several beds of 
shale and marl sueceed, the thickness altogether being about 200 feet. 
About 130 feet from the base of the formation there is a bed or band 
of sandstone, three feet thick, with two or three seams of marl, and 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 187 


many ripple-marked surfaces. It is only in this limited band that foot- 
prints of the Okeirotheriwm and four other much smaller reptilian impres- 
sions have been found; the only other trace of a fossil that has been 
discovered being the remains of an Kquisetiform reed at Flaybrick, a 
neighbouring locality in similar strata. Higher beds of the Keuper sand- 
stone occur towards the east of Liverpool, where thick strata of grey and 
red shales, with yellow and red sandstones, form the uppermost part of 
the Keuper on the Lancashire side of the Mersey. In Cheshire the over- 
lying “ Red Marl” can be seen reposing upon still higher strata, about 
Greasby and other villages in Wirral. The thickness of the whole of the 
Keuper formation near Liverpool is probably about 550 feet. 

Giascow GrotocicaL Socrety.—llth April.—About thirty of the 
members of the Glasgow Geological Society proceeded on their first ex- 
cursion of the season. The ground examined extends between Bowling 
and the river Leven. The heights above Auchentorlie House were found 
to be trappean ; a donsiderable platform of white sandstone in one spot, 
little affected by the surrounding igneous rocks, has been quarried for 
building purposes. Where the sandstone is contiguous to the trap, it 1s 
much altered. The excursionists next struck off in a north-westerly direc- 
tion, skirting the bold escarpment of tlre “‘ Lang Craig;” crossing the eastern 
branch of the Garshake Burn, they discovered a trap-dyke intersecting and 
exposing a seam of the peculiar thin-bedded grey limestone of the ‘ Bal- 
lagan”’ series of strata, evidently underlying the thick-bedded sandstone 
of the higher level. A short walk brought the party to Garshake Burn. 
Here a highly interesting section of shale, sandstone, and limestone, ap- 
pears for a considerable distance along the banks of the stream. Then the 
party proceeded to Auchenreoch Glen, still further west. This glen di- 
vides into two branches, the stream which threads it flowing into the Leven 
above Dumbarton, and the beautiful sections of strata exposed in its banks 
have long attracted the attention of geologists. 

The ‘** Gates of Sodom,” a vertical dyke of greenstone-porphyry cross- 
ing the course of the stream, which flows through a breach in this natural 
barrier, was aa object of remark, as was also a grotesque column of tu- 
faceous felstone, locally known as ‘‘ Lot’s Wife.” Other trap-dykes were 
found intersecting and disturbing the strata, and in the lower part of the 
glen a seam of fibrous gypsum was discovered in the shale. 

The course of the stream was then followed to the low ground, where 
the underlying Old Red sandstone was expected to appear, but the junc- 
tion could not be observed on account of the superincumbent drift. Some 
of the members now parted for Dumbarton, but some continued towards 
Bowling, and after viewing the junction of the Old Red with the “ Ballagan 
beds” in Dumbuck Glen, and visiting Dumbuck, finished with groping by 
moonlight for zeolitic minerals in Bowling quarry,—not without success. 

Grotocists’ AssociaTtion.—April 7, 1862.—Mr. Cresy read a paper 
“On some ancient skulls and flint-implements found in the Essex marshes 
during the progress of the Northern Outfall Sewer of the Metropolitan 
Main Drainage Works.” 

The three skulls exhibited were found along the line of the sewer, one 
on the east, and another on the west side of the River Lea, and the third, 
to which the greatest interest attached, in the East Ham marshes. <A 
diagram was exhibited showing sections of the strata at various points. 

From one to two feet of surface soil, chiefly vegetable mould, was first 
penetrated, then a bed of yellow or brown clay, three to five feet, then 
blue clay, two to four feet,—this sometimes alternated with beds of peat, 
—and then the gravel was reached. No shells of any kind have yet been 


188 THE GEOLOGIST. 


found, nor is there any other evidence by which the age of the several de- 
posits can be determined. bios 

The author did not assign the highest antiquity to any of the skulls ex- 
hibited, as the flint-tools found near them were not of the earliest or drift 
type; these (exhibited) were both polished and chipped. 

Previously to describing the skulls, the author enumerated the most 
marked characteristics of the Orcadian, Scandinavian, Ancient British, 
Roman, and Saxon skulls, comparing the one with the other, at the same 
time admitting the difficulty of an absolute classification, and pointing out 
the wide differences existing among individuals of the same race. Stull, 
the causes of modification being fewer and less active amongst ancient 
than amongst modern races, it was easier to arrive at more certainty of 
determination in ancient skulls than of those of our present mixed races. 

The author pointed out that the three skulls exhibited separate and well- 
marked types. That from the west side of the river Lea was comparatively 
small and well-proportioned, and apparently of a young person. 

The second, from the east of the river Lea, was of large size, with in- 
mense posterior development, and was evidently that of a man past middle 
life. The large bony crest of the occipital bone was extremely marked 
by the former attachment of large and powerful muscles. Altogether this 
skull showed great animal development and had marked affinities with 
many of the skulls of the Celtic period. 

The third skull, from East Ham marshes, presented the greatest in- 
terest ; in its vicinity were found the two flint-implements, and it was pro- 
bably the earliest of the three. The frontal development was very low, 
the vertical aspect narrowing rapidly anteriorly, the occipital region pre- 
dominating considerably over the frontal; the bony ridge of the occiput, 
too, was very marked; the sutures were nearly obliterated, so it was an 
aged skull. The author compared it with a cast of the Engis skull, and 
believed there were points of resemblance. 

Professor Busk, F.R.S., gave elaborate descriptions of the peculiarities 
of the skull. : 

Mr. C. C. Blake pointed out the discrepancies between the observations of 
those craniologists who had assigned particular crania to particular periods, 
as e.g. between Steenstrup and Wilson, the former having, by his observa- 
tions in Scandinavia, correlated the brachycephalic skulls with the date of 
the earliest known stone deposits in Denmark, whilst Wilson had demon- 
strated the existence of a long-headed (kumbecephalic) race of men from 
cairns at Nether Urquhart in Fifeshire and elsewhere, prior to the brachyce- 
phalie races who have left their remains in the later Stone period at Mont- 
rose. He hoped that some solution might be offered for this apparent 
discrepancy. 

Mr. 8. J. Mackie, F.G.S., remarked that the geological conditions in 
the present case seemed to have been somewhat overlooked. The sections in 
some places exhibited three beds of peat, and these ought to be carefully 
examined to see whether any vegetation existed in this country at the 
periods of their formation different from that which is now indigenous. 

He did not think attention should be solely given to the form and other 
eraniological characters of the exhumed skulls, for craniologists seemed to 
be by no means certain of the distinctions they had drawn being typical. 
He thought it rather rested with geologists to prove by stratigraphical 
evidence the antiquity of such remains, and thus furnish’a stable basis for 
the inferences of the craniologist and ethnologist. 

The following diagram will show the relative positions of the human 
remains and the flint implements: the sections being those given by the 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 189 


wells sunk for the drainage works; the distance between them is 350 
feet :— 


Section No. 60. Section No. 61. 
t. in. ft. in. 

eesweacersoll.. . 1 3 Nese Surtace; Srl, write ol. 
Brown Clay. Isa 6 Soft light-brown Clay 
Soft blue Clay . 4 0 
Beau et ley sys 0 

2.( Soft blue Clay . 3. 0 2 
Beatin enh se, eS 3G) 
Soft blue Clay . 2 0 102 9 Sott bluciGlay =. 
Peat: Sar 2 9 


* Skull. + Celts + 
With bones of whale, deer, 
ox, ete., at 15 ft. from —— 
the surface. 
3. Gravel (sunk into) 4 0 4 0 Gravel (sunk into) . 3. 


The surface of the marsh-land at East Ham is 5 feet above Ordnance 
datum (Liverpool mean-tide), or 124 feet above Trinity high-water mark. 
Consequently the level at which these relics were found, is one foot below 
low water spring-tide of the district. 

Such remains might be of like age with the relics of the Scandinavian 
Stone period or of the Swiss Lakes. They might be within the historic 
date. Nothing could prove this point but the strata themselves. It was 
not a little singular that on the opposite side of the river to the East Ham 
marshes there were thick layers of cockle-shells beneath the soil in many 
places. One of these, perhaps the most easy to find, occurred near 
Lesnes Abbey, and a small section of it was exposed at the side of the road 
leading towards the river. He did not mean to say that this was actually a 
refuse-heap, like the Kjokkenméddings, but he thought such accumulations 
were worth examining. 

Royat Socrety.— March 27.—* Theoretical Considerations on the Con- 
ditions under which Drift Deposits containing the Remains of Extinct 
Mammalia and Flint Implements were accumulated, and on their Geolo- 
gical Time.” By Joseph Prestwich, Esq. In the paper which the author 
read before the Society in 1859, it was demonstrated that the flint imple- 
ments occurred in undisturbed gravels commingled with the remains of 
extinct mammalia; but the theoretical considerations of the subject were 
then omitted. The author now showed that in existing river-valleys, in 


> 
3 Sle TT 
= = eee 


Section in the Valley of the Seine. a@ a, high-level gravels; d, valley gravels; 
7, present river-course ; e e, chalk-rock 77 situ. 


parts of England and France, two lines or zones of gravels or drift deposits 
are met with; one at from fifty to two hundred feet above the present 
streams, and usually forming a terrace: the other ranging along the 
bottom of the valleys. ‘The elevated terraces are portions of former valleys, 
wider and more shallow than the present ones, scooped out by other and 
different causes than mere ordinary river-action. They are above the 
reach of the highest floods, and no other mass of water than that flowing 
up an arm of the sea could fill them. The Seine, at its highest flood, has 


190 THE GEOLOGIST. 


not exceeded twenty-nine feet, but it would require the present rivers to 
be of a hundred times that volume to fill the existing valley. That the 
terraces were originally connected is proved by the isolated patches of 
their gravels. still lying at elevated spots between them. The author 
believed that the gravels were brought and distributed by ice and by the 
melting of the winter snows in spring pouring down great bodies of water, 
the gravels enclosing boulders of hard rock, brought often from long dis- 
tances. He also attributed much importance to the action of ground ice. 
He pointed out contortions in the drift-bed at St. Acheul, as formed by 
the pressure and squeezing force of massive ice. The characters of the 
gravels were then considered, in reference to the climatal condition of the 
drift period, which the author argued were those of a more intense cold, | 
by 20° or 25°, than the average of our present winters. The bearings of 
the geographical distribution of the animals of that period, and its com- 
parison with those of existing forms of life, were also assumed to confirm 
this inference. The use assigned for some of the largest flint implements 
was that of making holes in the ice,—the men of the drift-age, like the 
North-American Indians and the Esquimaux, being very often depen- 
dent upon winter supplies of fish. Since the formation of the high- 
level gravels, an elevation of the land has taken place, and the present 
valleys excavated, and the lower gravels deposited. The tendency of 
existing rivers was to cut deep gorges, and not valleys, with sloping sides, 
such as those containing the gravels. The large flint implements were no- 
where so abundant in the valleys as in the terrace-gravels. Flint-flakes, 
on the contrary, were most common in the valley-gravels,—the climate of 
the valley-period bemg more lenient, there was a diminished need of great 
flint chisels for breaking the ice. These distributions, at two periods, of 
different forms of implements indicated a difference in the habits of the 
tribes by whom they were respectively used. 

In the questions of time and succession the value of probabilities must 
be considered. The antiquity of the flints was carried back through three 
geological ages,—the loéss, terrace, and valley-gravels; all long periods 
except the loéss, the duration of which was comparatively short. The 
sand-pipes in the valley of the Somme were first considered as a standard 
of time-measurement ; and then the author commented upon the probable 
condition, at those periods, of the British Channel, the formation of which, 
while a late geological event, he was not prepared to admit to be one of 
the last. Even in the Pleistocene period the British Channel existed, 
although much narrower, and there was a line of cliffs running parallel 
with the present coasts. The sea being narrower, was frozen over every 
winter, permitting the passage of men and animals. Some of the great 
effects of such a cold period might already be conceived, although it might 
not be in our power as yet to accurately define them. In looking at a 
distant mountain-chain we could judge of its great magnitude without 
waiting for a trigonometrical survey to be assured of its exact dimensions. 
The author then suggested as a possible measure of time the perturbations 
in the increasement of heat at various depths in the earth’s crust, arising 
from disturbances originating with the glacial period; and he concluded 
by giving his impression that in the existence of this remarkable cold 
period preceding our own, we might possibly trace evidence of great and 
allwise design by the circumstance that, in this long glacial era, the earth’s 
crust would tend to acquire an earlier adjustment in its equilibrium, and 
obtain a rigidity and stability which should make it more fitting for the 


habitation and pursuits of civilized man. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 191 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


M. G. de Mortillet has published* a map of the ancient glaciers of 
the Italian flanks of the Alps, in which the former greater extension of 
the glaciers in the quaternary period and their present retracted limits are 
marked out. The space occupied by these glaciers extended to the valley 
of the Stura, near to the Col de Tende, as far as the environs of Udine. 
The author believes that the lakes on the southern flank of the Alps have 
been scooped out of the soft rocks by the grinding action of the glaciers. 
The résumé of his theories is, that after the last upheaval of the Alps 
there were formed enormous deposits of horizontally stratified alluvium, 
which attained great thickness. These alluvial beds exist above and below 
the large Italian lakes; over them repose the glacial beds, with striated 
pebbles and unrolled erratic blocks. This deposit has been left by the 
glaciers, which then advanced more or less over the plain. ‘These glaciers, 
in clearing out the great basins filled with the ancient alluvium, have 
scooped the site of the present valley. They drove before them the mate- 
rials which they brought down, and these were heaped up in their terminal 
moraines. The alluvial beds deposited during the great extension of the 
glaciers, have formed a continuation of the ancient alluvium, and during 
the period of retreat the streams of water have deeply excavated the ante- 
rior or older deposits. They have scooped longitudinal terraces, which 
border their present courses, and have not been able to fill up the great 
depressions which now are the lakes. 

An “ Essai sur les Conditions générales des Couches a Aviculu contorta, 
sur la constitution géologique et paléontologique spéciale de ces mémes 
couches en Lombardie, et sur la constitution définitive de lKtage Infra- 
Liasien,” by the Abbé Stoppani, has been published in Milan (4to, 1861). 
Tt is divided into three parts—the first containing bibliographical notices, 
or rather an historical réswmé of the study of the beds forming the horizon 
of the Avicula contorta, followed by a description of the characters of these 
beds, and an indication of their thickness. In England they appear to be 
very thin; on the northern flanks of the Alps they are some twelve métres 
thick ; while in Lombardy they attain to eight hundred or a thousand feet. 
Their geographical area is of considerable extent; they are met with in 
England, Ireland, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, Westphalia, Luxemburg, in 
the departments of the Moselle and the Meurthe, Cote d’Or, Yonne. Rhone, 
Cévennes, Savoy, Switzerland, in the Vorarlberg, and at other points in the 
chain of the Alps as far as Hungary—everywhere forming a convenient 
and decided band. The second part of the Essay gives a more special de- 
scription of these Avicula contorta beds in Lombardy, where they have 
previously been studied by Collegno, Escher, and Omboni. In the third 
part the author shows that, on paleontological grounds, these beds must be 
placed in the Jurassic series, and that they are sufficiently important and 
sufficiently clearly separated from the beds above and below them to form 
a separate division, which he terms the Htage Infraliasien. He indicates 
exactly the synonyms of other countries, the principal of which are the 
beds of Keessen in Austria; the ‘‘ Bone-bed” and White Lias in Hngland ; 
the ‘‘Cloae”” of Wurtemberg ; the sandstone of Helmsingen and of Leve- 
lange, in Luxemburg; the sandstone of Hettange; the zone of Ammonites 
planorbis and A. angulatus of M. Oppel; the limestone of Halberstadt ; 


* Atti della Soc. Italiana de Se. Nat. in Milano, 1861, t. iii. | 


192 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the limestone of Valognes; the “chéin batard” of Lyon; the “ foie de 
veau” of Bourgogne; the Sinemurien in part of D’Orbigny; the “ qua- 
trieme étage” of the Lias of D’Archiac; the upper dolomite of Lombardy, 
ete. In the tabular view which the author gives, the tage Infraliasien 
is placed below the zone of Ammonites Bucklandi, and is formed in the 
following manner :— 

1. Zone of Ammonites angulatus. 

2. Zone of Ammonites planorbis. 

3. Zone of Terebratula gregaria. 

4. Zone of Bactryllium, reposing on 

THE KBUPER. 
Henceforth, if the author’s views are correct, these Avicula contorta beds 
would serve as the lower limit of the Jurassic formation, and will form a 
datum line of great importance in studying the geology of the Alps. The 
Essay appears to be an extract from the excellent memoir by the Abbé, 
“The Paleontology of Lombardy.” 

M. Morlot has given an aceount, in the ‘ Indicateur de Suisse,’ of the 
finding of a part of a nodule of pyrites amongst the remains of the lake- 
dwellings of the Stone-age at Robenhausen by M. Messikommer, which 
was furrowed by striking it against some hard substance, probably for the 
purpose of obtaining fire. Many fragments of pyrites have previously been 
found at the same place and at Wangen. Another specimen, as large 
as the first, and evidently used for the same purpose, has recently also 
been found by M. Engelhardt, amongst a great number of different 
antiquities, dating from the earliest ages to our own era, in a peat-bed at 
Sonder Brarup, in Denmark. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


Cuttine Diamonps.—There still seem to be, in the minds of most per- 
sons, some wrong notions relative to the manner of cutting diamonds, and 
especially this is the case in London. Although several notices and de- 
scriptions of diamonds have appeared in various serials and magazines of 
late, none of them describe the process of cutting, except in such a vague 
and unintelligible manner as to impress upon the minds of readers a simi- 
larity of the method of cutting, to that of other stones. The principle, it 
is true, is somewhat the same, but the operation is distinctly different. It 
is also generally stated, that the workmen have such a very perfect know- 
ledge of the crystallography of the diamond as to enable them to cleave 
it very readily. The fact is they know nothing whatever of crystallogra- 
phy,—at least as a rule,—and only cleave the erystals by experience. As 
to why a diamond should cleave in a certain direction, they cannot tell, 
nor could they explain why they strike it on one particular spot in order 
to do so. It is also generally stated that diamonds are cut on the prin- 
ciple of “ diamond cut diamond,” two crystals being rubbed together till 
a facet is produced. They are certainly rubbed together to get them a 
little into shape; but how? If the reader rub two erystals of diamond 
together, he will find that he hardly makes an impression on either; but 
if the stones are inserted in metal and attached to a holder, and these held 
in the hands, which are rested on a bench, the thumbs towards each other, 
then it will be found that the mechanical power or leverage obtained is 
very great, even suflicient to crumble and break such hard material as 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 193 


diamond ; but this process must be seen to be perfectly understood. The 
fragments and dust crushed off fall into a metal sieve, which separates the 
smaller from the larger particles ; both are used for cutting and polishing 
purposes,—the larger, under the name of splint, for engraving stone seals, 
drilling, and slitting; the finer particles, after being beaten in a steel 
mortar of the required fineness, for the cutting of diamonds. Diamond 
boart, which is the massive opaque variety, is also used for the same pur- 
poses as splint. The impure crystals having sharp cutting angles are 
used by glaziers: these are of no value as gems. 

With regard to cutting, it is generally stated that the diamond is first 
imbedded in fusible metal, the reason why is not given; but it is as fol- 
lows :—In cutting diamonds the soft iron wheel, which is charged with 
diamond powder and oil, revolves with such amazing rapidity, either by 
steam or some other power, that if the diamond were merely attached to 
cement, as rubies, sapphires, and all other stones are, to be cut, the heat 
caused by the friction would melt or soften the cement so that it would 
be impossible to cut it; but the heat generated by the wheel revolving is 
not sufficient to melt the metal. The smallest rose diamonds, even of 800 
to the carat, or 200th of a grain weight each, have thus to be placed 
in fusible metal. Of these, as also small brilliants, three or more are cut 
at onetime. The wheels for cutting other stones than diamonds revolve 
at the rate of from 100 to 300 times in a minute. 

Another peculiarity in the process of cutting diamonds is the polishing. 
This is effected on the same wheel and almost at the same time as the 
cutting, and with the same material—crushed diamond. No other stone 
is so cut and polished at the same time. Some have two or three polish- 
ing materials, which are always much softer than the stone to be cut. 

These few remarks on cutting diamonds will be, I think, understood, 
although it is a process that ought to be seen to enable any one completely 
to appreciate the difference in the respective physical characters and 
mineralogical peculiarities of the diamond in respect to other stones.— 

Jamis R. GrucGory, 25, Golden Square, London. 


SEPARATION oF THE IstE or WieHt.—Sir,—You are of course well 
aware of the famous passage in Diodorus Siculus (lib. v: cap. 22), which 
is now interpreted by Sir G. C. Lewis and the latest German philologists 
as referring, not to St. Michael’s Mount, but the Isle of Wight. There 
ine writer expressly says that in his time the passage at low water was 

ry. 

Now we have in this neighbourhood, of which you may not be aware, 
various traditions to the same effect, such as that the Cistercian monas- 
tery of Beaulieu was built of Binstead stone, brought across from the 
Isle of Wight in carts at low tides. 

I. I should be glad to know if these assertions have any truth in them, 
and to what period you date the separation of the Isle of Wight, between 
Calshot Point and Hurst Castle, from the mainland ? 

Ii. Can you refer me to any good book or article on the subject ? 

Your constant reader, 
Lymington, Hants. W. B. H. 


Geotogicat Tasies.—The Synoptical Tables of British Geology in use 
by Professor King, of Galway, having been highly thought of by teachers 
of our science, we are happy to be able, through the Professor’s kindness, 
to present our readers with a new edition, which he has revised and cor- 
rected up to the present time, expressly for this magazine.—Ep. Got. 

von. V. 2 C 


SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF BRITISH AQUEOUS ROCK-GROUPS, ARRANGED IN THEIR ORDEI 
*,.* Hach Group represents a Geological Perio) 


Taking the smallness of its area into consideration, no country equals hans in the extent of illustrating the peoloatel 
: - onthe Continent. In North America the Secondar! 


CLASSES. SYSTEMS.” FORMATIONS.—Maring Typrs. } 


Deposits now forming around the shores of the British Islands. ; i 
POST-PLEISTOCENE | 
(Or Post-Pliocene)—Lyell. Blackpool (Lancashire) Shell-sands. - Belfast low-level (British) Shell- clays, 


Devonshire Raised Beaches. " " "2 Portrush Shell-gravel. 


Kelsey (near Hull) Marine Shell-sands, with Corbicula flwminalis. Howth 
(near Dublin) Cytherea Chione, Gravel. | 


PLEISTOCENE—Tyell English Midland sub-Arctie Shell- gravels. “Wicklow and Antrim Shell-clays. 
(Glacial—Forbes). ? Selsea (Sussex Levels) “‘ Yellow Drift-clay’”” (Godwin-Austen). 


° ° ° . o ° ° e . e 2 8 


Lanarkshire (Arctic) Shell-clays. : 


a 

Sy 
pe | 
<q > PLIOCENE—Lyell. Norwich Crag. gree and Chillesford Shell-clay 
2 Contains more (a large num- ia: ie 
ma 8 ber) existing sp. of shells | Walton Naze (Essex) B Red Crag. | Wexford Shell-gravel. 
Fag than occur in the two next 7 eg eee sor se <6 ea 
Sa = antecedent Systems. Suffolk Crag. 

ie) 

| 


MIOCENE—Lyeil. | 


Contains a less number of (Not known in British Isles: possibly swept off by denudation. Occurs 
existing sp. than the Plio- in France, Germany, Belgium, etc.) 
cene. 
EOCENE—Lyell. © Barton Clay. 


TheearliestSystemcontain-| . ....... 
ing living (few) species of | Bracklesham Clay. 
shells,—the AW OL ORS Mam en Bart ee ence rae ee 
isting testaceous life, London Clay and Thanet Sands. 


P|) jeemcepna, || Cee eee ae 
TS Characterized by Chalk South of England Chalk. Antrim “ White Limestone.’ 

bas (creta) rocks. ee Ne ee eS Gel hd CS EOM OG aed! Go| 
| = Gault, and Wiltshire (‘“‘ Upper”) Greensand. Antrim ‘‘ Mulatto Stone.’ 

8 
& § 
FAS 
oe 

| 


NEOCOMIAN. Atherfield (Isle of Wight) clay. 
oye deposits occur at 
eufchatel (Veocomum) 
in Switzerland. (The lowest marine portion of this System appears not to be developed 
in British Isles.) 


* The student is strongly recommended to commit the column of * Systems” fo memory. 


JF SUPERPOSITION AND IN CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE. By Professor Wint1am Kine. 
if Time, the Laurentian being the Oldest. 


ecords of our Earth: with a few exceptions (Miocene) it contains all the Rock-systems occurring, often widely separated, 
systems appear to be incompletely developed. 


Lirk-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS 


FRESHWATER TYPES. ays DARA 


Of Pleistocene Ruminants, the Scotch gigantic Fossil Ox (Bos 
primigenius), andsmall Fossil Ox (Bos longifrons—probably 
Peat, Marl, and other deposits now forming in Lakes, original of our domestic breeds), lived on to latest (Histo- 


Rivers, etc. ric) division of this Period. P Samemay besaid of the Irish 
3 Sg. (5 oo RR erecta eerie aaa Megaceros. The great Aurochs (Bison priscus) is still living 
Cornish Submarine Forests with Human Remains. a Lithuanian Russia, but preserved by strict protective 

- co Lo. SSanSORn ORE ORC Ean mE Coc Cs ene EC aws. 
? Irish Megaceros Marls and Peat. P Special Organisms :—Shells—Lima excavata, Haliotis tuber- 


culata, Natiea Kingii, Litorina litoralis, Fusus Berniciensis, 
and I’. Norvegicus. 


British Spec. Org. !—Shells—Mya Uddevallensis, Rhynchonella 
psitiacea, Natica cluusa, Pecten Islandicus, etc.; Mam- 
mals—Reindeer, Musk-buffalo (all the foregoing are now 
only living in Arctic regions !),— Hlephas primigenius (Mam- 
moth), #. antiquus, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Hippopotamus 
major, gigantic Irish Deer (Megaceros Hibernicus), Cave 
Bear, Cave Lion (these have all died out!), and certain 
bovine Ruminants. The genus Homo characterizes this and 
the following (Post-Pleistocene) Period; manufactured 
flint implements having been found at Hoxne (Suffolk) and 
other places (also in France), under circumstances proving 
that a low (? extinct species) tribe lived coevally with the 
extinct Mammals last-named. 


_ River Air (Yorkshire) Hippopotamus, Alluvium. Thames 
Valley, Elephas primigenius, and Hoxne Flint-imple- 
ments Gravels. 


‘ ? Maidenhead (Berkshire) “High-level Gravel” (Prest- 
wich). West of Ireland Escar Drift, and (? iceberg- 
transported) granite erratics. 


| North of England Boulder-drift. West of Ireland (? field 
and mountain glacier) Limestone-drift. 


Monkeys (Macacus pliocenus) still existing. A large increase 
of recent shells; Suffolk Crag containing 50, Walton Crag 
57, and Norwich 85 per cent.! Spec. Org. :—Mammals— 
Elephas meridionalis (? one of the earliest British species of 
true Elephants), Mastodon Arvernensis (? existing not later 
than Red Crag), Rhinoceros Etruscus ; Shells—Astarte 
Omalii, Nucula Cobboldiz, Cassidaria bicatenata, Natica 
catenoides, Nussa reticosa, Voluta Lamberti. Earliest (Suf- 
folk) Crag species, Southern forms; latest (Norwich), 
northern ! 


| Happisburgh (Norfolk) Elephas meridionalis bed. 
| Felixstow (Mastodon) detrital bed. 


. . . ° 


Elephantine (Mastodon angustidens) and other Pachyderms, 
as Acerotherium (Rhinoceros-like), Dinotherium (allied to 
Dugong), exist; also a large Ape (Dryopithecus), exceed- 
ing in size the Gorilla! Recent shells mostly of sub-tro- 
pical forms, increase to 25 per cent. :—Special species— 
Leda Deshayesiana, Pectunculus crassus, Oliva Dufresnit, 
Proto cathedralis, Cerithium plicatum. None of these occur 
in British Islands ; only in France, Belgium, and Germany. 


Bovey Tracey (Devonshire) Lignite. 
Lough Neagh Lignite. ? Isle of Mull Lignite. 


| ? Hempstead (Isle of Wight) beds. 


Mammals of high types now abound (Paleéotherium, Cory- 
phodon, Dichobune), all belonging to extinct genera. East 
Indian-like Monkeys (Macacus eocenus) ; also reptiles seve- 
rally resembling the Gavial of India, the Crocodile of Borneo, 
and the Alligator of America, living in England! Vegetation 
that of the Indian Islands. Shells mostly of tropical types— 
under 5 per cence. identical with recent species: special— 
Cerithium giganteum, Volutilithes spinosus, Venericardia pla- 
nicosta, Axinus angulatus, Nautilus imperialis, Atwria zic- 
zac. Nummulites (Protozooins) characterize this period. 


Bembridge Marls. 
Hordweli Marls and Sands. 
Sheppey Clay (Estuarine). 


In the British Isles there is a great Life-break between the Eocene and the Cretaceous System; the 
former rarely contains any species of plants and animals characterizing the Secondary periods: pro- 
bably, in other regions there may be a closer fossil agreement between the two Systems, caused by 

their containing other coterminous Formations; or there may exist an intermediate System. 


True dicotyledonous Plants (Credneria) appear. Horn-scaled 
Fishes (Beryz, Gener cides) replace early enamel-scaled 
kinds. Ammonites much reduced in numbers, giving way to 
singular forms allied to them, as Zwrrilites, Scaphites, Bacu- 
lites, etc. Spec. Org.:—Shells—Hippurites, Magus, King- 
ena, Ostrea vesicularis, Inoceramus, Spondylus spinosus, 
Ammonites Sussexiensis, Belemnitella; Echinoderms—Ga- 
lerites, Micraster, Ananchytes, Marsupites. Many shells ap- 
proach to recent forms. Marine Lizards, few—Mosasaurus, 
ete.; Flying Lizards, still living, and of large size. 


Enormous Land Lizards (Jguanodon, Hyleosaurus) inhabiting 
the Palm (Clathraria), Cycas (Mantellia), and Pine (Abie- 
tites) forests of the region of Kent. Several small Insecti- 
vorous Mammals and Marsupials exist (Purbeck Marl)— 


Weald Clay and Hastings Sand. Spaiacotherium, Triconodon, etc. Spec. Org.:—Shells— 
PP bir Se hag See Cortis corrugata, Perna Mulleti, Exogyra, Pterocera Bec- 
? Portland Dirt-bed and Purbeck Marlstone. klestvi, Ammonites Deshayesti, Ancyloceras, Crioceras ; 


Fishes—Lepidotus Fittoni, Macropoma Egertoni. 
+ In reading this column, the student should begin with the bottom System, the Laurentian. 


SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF BRITISI 


CLASSES. | SYSTEMS. | FORMATIONS.—Mazine Typzs, 


~———-—---- | | 

| 
j 
| 


Portland Dersceelnee) Oolite. Somerset Teleosaurus pe a Lias. 


JURASSIC. Soest 0 SE eice re is > 7 
|W ell developed in the Jura | Oxford Clay. 
Mountains. Ca heer Ce eso OOO OO Oe GO oO 
Bath Oolite. ? Larne (Antrim) mixed Fossil Bedy 
LIASSIC. | 
| From Lias, the name of | | Yorkshire Alum-Shales. es 
certain rocks, usually in | Gioycestershire Marl-Stone. (Magillican, Portrush) and Antrim 


layers, the latter word | 
being sounded by the | 
quarrymen like lias. 


ee Rocks occur in Londonde 


(Cave Hill, Collin’s Glen, Ballintoy), 
| Lincolnshire and Somersetshire ‘Lias. : 


TRIASSIC. 


| From apparently consisting | (N Bt ows a Britains ie tp ae eerie ENE en ca 
| of three members (Keu- 


| 
| 
| 
per, Muschelkalk, and Ee Lancashire Red and Mottled Sandstone. "(Probably much of it freshwater.) : 
| 
| 
——— _ 


Cheshire Marls, with Salt. Carrickfergus ditto. Gloucestershire and London: 
derry (Lisnagrib) Avicula contorta beds. 


—Mesozoie of Phillips (continued). 


Bunter) in Germany. 


? St. Cassian (Tyrol) and Hallstatt (S. E. Salsburg) ‘Limestone. 


. . . 


SECONDARY. 


| : 
| Sunderland and | Haetdopoo! (es Crystalline and Oolitic “Rimestous 
| Brotherton (Yorkshire) becs. Andtrea (Tyrone) and Cultra (Down) Mag 
| nesian Limestone. German “ oberer Zechstein.”” Manchester Marls. 
| 
| 
| 


Humbleton and Tunstall (Durham) "« fossiliferous Limestone.” Doncaste 


EE eee and Pontefract (Yorkshire) Limestone. German ‘‘mittler Zechstein.” 


From Perm, a country in | 
| Russia, where a well-de- 
| veloped series of the Sys- | 
tem occurs. 


| Midderidge | (Durham) Marl-slate and cormpact Limestone. German Kupfer 
schiefer and ‘‘ unterer Zechstein.” 


| Gera (Thuringia) Rhyncopora Geinitziana Weissliegende. ? Ferry Hill (D r 
| ham) Lingula Sandstone. 


| | (Not known in British Isles.) ? Artinsk (Russia) Grits 


| CARBONIFEROUS. Redesdale (Northumberland) and" Lisdoonvarna (Clare) Shales. 
Ghar arg by deposits AS | Yoredale Worksite): Limestone. way (‘‘ Upper’’) Limestone, 


Coal or Carbon. 


Lo Limestone. — AN) Geek (« Lower”) Limestone 


| Tweedian beds ‘(Tate). ees Bantry Bay (Cork) Calcareous Schis 
| 


; 
‘ | 
'e 
| | 
| Petherwin Slates South of Ireland Old Red Conglomerate. Fifeshir 
DEVONIAN Sandstones 
| —Sedgwick and Murchison. 2 elicie mces steel @t fe". ce) tier ye) tel uel kerr ke Saket tea Rna Meio! fee alien ee 
4 Individu: ality of the System Marwood Sandstones. Coomhola (Cork) Grit 
. first m: ide out in Devon- Rtas gency ese See len wT hw epee eas Ob ih On CRC ies 
| shire. | Plymouth Limestone. Dingle (Kerry) beds. Caithness Schist)f7 
get | Linton Sandstones. 2 i Glengariff Grits. Herefordshire Cornstone 
} 
STLURIAN—Murchison. | Wenlock Limestones Ferriter’s Cove (Kerry) Shale 
| Type rocks occur in a por- 


PRIMARY. 


—Palwozoic of Sedgwick. 


Ludlow Shales, ete. : Doonquin (Kerry) bed 


| tion of Wales, anciently | Llandovery Grits (Mav HillGrouw,) SaGibride (Count ara) bel 
|r dnhweited bp ninibe calles | andovery Grits (May Hill Group). Kilbride (Connemara) bed 


| Silures. | Caradoc Sandstone. Portrane ie (Dublin), ? Pomeroy (Tyrone), Chair of Kilde 


pare Sse Llandeilo Flags, Newtown Head, near ‘Waterfor 


CAMBRIAN—Se dgwick, | Tremadoe (Caernarvonshire) Lingula Flags. Shropshire ‘‘ Stiperstones.” 
ip ype roc ks occur in Cam- | a : e . - < 5 i: LS aye « we 
bria (Wales). (Huro- Longmynd (Shropshire) Rocks. Bray Head (Wicklow) Flags. Ross-shi 
nian, Logan; Primordial | Cong ‘lomerate and Sandstone. 
| zone, Barrande ; Taconic, f 
|  #immons.) (This System probably contains more Formations. The on 


| 
| 


| Rocks are estimated at 26,000 feet in thickness !) 


'% AUREN NTI AN— Logan. 


’ 
Forming the Laurentide | “Fundamental Gneiss” of the Island of Lewis and north-western Highlan 
| 


mountains of Canada, of Scotland. Estimated at 40,000 feet in thickness in Canada! 
__(Lewisian, n, Murchison. ) 


Third Editio: 


JEOUS ROCK-GROUPS—continued. 


LIFE-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS 


FRESHWATER TYPES. oR PERIODS. 


Mammals still low (Marsupials—Phascolotherium), but in- 
creasing; Stereognathus appears to be higher. Elephant- 
sized Reptiles (Megalosaurus), Flying Lizards, some with 
membranous wings (Pterodactylus), others with fan-shaped 
Jeathered wings (Griphosaurus), and new paddled Saurians 
(Pliosaurus), tenanting the land, air, and water respec- 
tively. Spec. Org.:—Plants—Ovopteris, Puleozamia, and 

isthorp (Yorkshire) Plant-beda. others allied to Cycases ; Shells—Opis, Trigonia clavellata, 
Myoconcha, Pholadomya fidicula, Nerinea, Purpurina, 
Ammonites Humphresianus; Echinoderms—<4Apivcrinus, 
Nucleolites, Acrosalenia; Fishes—Pycnodus, Strophodus. 


Period of marine paddled Reptiles (Ichthyosaurus, Plesio- 
saurus, Cuttle-fish-snake-shells (Ammonites—species in vast 
numbers) and plumose peduncled Star-fishes (Lrtracrinus). 
Spec. Org. :—Shells—Hippopodium, Cardinia Listeri, Gry- 
phea incurva, Leda ovum, Spiriferina, Belemnites acutus 
(Cuttle-fish bones), Ammonites bifrons, A. heterophyllus ; 
Fishes—(enamelled) Hugnathus, Dapedius, (Shark) Hybodus 
reticulatus. Peculiar Crocodiles (Teleosaurus). 


The earliest period known for Mammals (Microlestes), which 
arelow! Totally new Reptiles—Mastodonsaurus (large and 
toad-like), Placodus, ete., replace earlier kinds. New Fishes 
Saurichthys, Cerutodos, Ischypterus) appear, most primary 
kinds having died out! Spec. Org.:—Shells—Myophoria, 
Bakevellia socialis, Allorisma musculoides, Ceratites (link 
between Carboniferous Goniatites and Jurassic Ammonites) ; 
Crinoids—Lily-encrinite. 


‘lace of the German Keuper.) 


° . . e . . e ° ° . . e e e e 2 ° e e e 


“lace of the German (Upper) Bunter.) 


In the British Isles there is a great Life-break between the Triassic and the Permian System; the 
former rarely contains any species of plants and animals characterizing the Primary periods: pro- 
bably, in other regions there may be a closer fossil agreement between the two Systems, caused by 


their containing other coterminous Formations; or there may exist an intermediate System. 
EE 
$ristol Bone Conglomerate, and Doncaster Red Sandstone| _ 
Me ie ew wt thw tC tlhC eC «Ce | CLife not abundant in European area; possibly due to great 
physico-geographical changes going on. Spec. Org.:—Rep- 
tiles—Paleosaurus, Thecodontosaurus; Fishes— (enamelled) 


- gg EY RONG S'S STA NCUR Tn eC Cee HemC innC nr rr Gaeen Paleoniscus comptus, Doryopterus, Holacanthodus ; Crabs— 
Shropshire Calcareous Conglomerate. Paleocrangon (no Trilobites !); Sheils—Camarophoria mul- 
tiplicata, Strophalosia, Aulosteges umbonillutus, Schizodus, 

Mea R ih bia > heir ee 6 ele we Loxonoma Swedenborgiana, Nautilus (true) ; Corals—(bryo- 
_resden Rothliegende. zoic) Synocladia, Phyllopora (plated) Polycelia. 


: Singular Plants (Calamites, Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Sphe- 
meashire and Durham Coal-measures. nopteris, etc.) abound, their debris forming Coal beds! 
Oe AO 0 Os OO, CUO SE es eR Peay DET 5 ok nM Reptiles (Parabatrachus, Apateon) of lowest (fish-like) kinds 
[rish Coal-measures. ? Inferior portion of South Welsh appear! Spec. Org.:—Corals—Michelinia, Lithostrotion ; 


Coal-measures. Shells—Productus, Spirifer, Edmondia, Anthracosia, Gonia- 
LO OED FOG OO Ts oa ee ae eae ee tites ; Crinoids—Platycrinus, Woodocrinus, Pentremites ; 
‘Devonshire Culm. Crabs—Griffithides (Trilobites becoming rare), Bellinurus ; 


Fishes—Megalichthys, Dendrodus (rivalling Crocodiles in 


oR Roh cao, | Oh ene eae 
dinburgh “ Calciferous Sandstone. size), Psammodus, Pale@oniscus. 


nocktopher (Kilkenny Plant-beds). Period of cuirassed (Placoganoid) Fishes (Pterichthys, Cocco- 
steus)! Spec. Org. :—Corals—Cyathophyllum cespitosum, 
Favosites Goldfussi, Plewrodictyum; Shells—Davidsonia, 
Calceola, Stringocephalus, Megalodon, Clymenia ; Crinoidal 
Echinoderms—Hezacrinus ; Trilobites—Bronteus flabellifer, 
Phacops latifrons ; Fishes—(enamel-scaled or Lepidoganoid) 
Osteolepis, Glyptolepis, Diplacanthus. Terrestrial Plants 
exist—Cyclostigma, Aparoxylon, etc. 


Period of Graptolites (Zoophytes), straight-chambered Shells 
(Orthoceros), and Trilobites (Asaphus, Acidaspis, Phacops). 
Singular helmeted (Placoganoid) Fishes (Pteraspis, Ce- 
phalaspis, etc.), first found in latest (Ludlow) Formation! 
Spec. Org. :—Corals— Heliolites, Halysites ; Shells—Penta- 
merus, Murchisonia, Maclurea, Lituites ; Peculiar Echino- 
derms (Sea-urchin Group)—Spheronites, Eucalyptocrinus, 
Paleaster (ancient Star-fish). 


Plants (apparently Sea-weeds) and Animals rare; latter more 
abundant in America and Bohemia. Certain low forms, 
viz.: (Zoophytes) Oldhamia (in Bray rocks), Dictyonema, 
(Shell) Lingula Davisii, (Crabs of the Trilobite group) Pa- 
leopyge, Conocephalus, Paradoxides, Olenus, etc., (2? a Phyl- 

i me lopod Crab) Hymenocaris, (Annelids) Scolithus and Histio- 

| derma are Special Organisms of this Period. 


No traces of Life yet discovered in British rocks of this 
Period, though strong indications occur in America (Sterry 
Hunt). 


Vorrected for the ‘ Geologist.’ 


198 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Tur GripHosaurvus.—‘ On a New Fossil Reptile, supposed to be fur- 
nished with Feathers,” by A. Wagner. The above is the title of an article 
which occupies the most prominent position in the pages of our contempo- 
rary the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for April, and is 
translated by W.S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the ‘Sitzungsberichte der Munch- 
ner Akad. der Wiss.,’ 1861, p. 146. 

In it is detailed the account of a conversation held between Prof. Wag- 
ner and M. Witte, of Hanover, in which the latter gentleman described 
that he had seen a skeleton in the possession of M. Haberlein, of Pappen- 
heim, from the lithographic slate of Solenhofen, ‘‘ with such a combination 
of characters that nothing more surprising and odd could be imagined. 
This specimen, indeed, wanted the skull and the two hands, but in other 
respects the most important parts of the skeleton were well preserved. 
The most remarkable thing about it was, that a well-marked coat of fea- 
thers was present, both on the anterior limbs and on the tail. These 
feathers agreed in their configuration so exactly with those of true birds, 
that their interpretation as such could hardly be doubted. The discovery 
of feathers in the lithographic slate was of itself something unprecedented, 
but the mode of their union with the skeleton bordered on the incredible. 
Thus, the tail-feathers were attached to a tail possessing not the least re- 
semblance to that of a bird, but presenting a deceptive similarity to that 
of a Ramphorynchus. And the attachment of the wings was still more asto- 
nishing ; for these, on both the anterior limbs, formed a fan, radiating from 
the extremity of the fore-arm.” 

This information, coming from a man whose judgment Prof. Wagner 
“could not but respect as that of one well acquainted with the subject,” 
naturally caused doubt in the mind of the learned German Professor. The 
discovery by Herman vy. Meyer, of authenticated evidence of feathers in 
the Solenhofen slate (‘Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 74) seemed to afford an addi- 
tional corroboration of M. Witte’s statement. A friend of Wagner, how- 
ever, whose name has not transpired, sent to him a report upon the speci- 
men, which we transcribe verbatim :—‘‘ Skull, neck, and both hands 
wanting. Of the vertebral column, the greater part of the vertebre of the 
trunk, and the whole of those of the tail, are completely preserved. The 
former are of moderate length and uncovered; the tail, which measures 
upwards of six inches, consists of about twenty vertebre of an elongate 
narrow form, the dimensions of which slowly but constantly diminish, so 
that the last of them is the smallest. Of the anterior limbs, the humerus 
and fore-arm are present on both sides; they are strong bones, pretty 
nearly of equal length, and the fore-arm consists of radius and ulna. At 
the anterior extremity of each fore-arm, there is a broad, short bone, but 
this is uninjured. Of the pelvis only the right half is preserved ; it is but 
small, and is comparable, not with the pelvis of a bird, but rather with 
that of a Pterodactyle. On the left side, the whole hinder extremity is 
preserved ; on the right, only the thigh and shank. The former is a 
powerful and not very long bone; the latter is somewhat longer and thinner, 
and is simple—at least, a separation into tibia and fibula is not perceptible. 
The tarsus consists only of a single powerful bone, which is shorter than 
the shank bone with which it is in contact ; its lower extremity is consider- 
ably widened, and bears three articular processes, to which the three toes 
are attached. The latter are of moderate length, and armed with strong 
hooked claws. Feathers occur both on the anterior limbs and on the tail ; 
they have, however, left only their impressions, but these show sharply- 
defined outlines, and upon a passing glance they present a deceptive re- 
semblance to birds’ feathers. From the above-mentioned short, broad 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 199 


bone, which lies close to the extremity of each fore-arm, there issues a 
radiate fan of feathers, by which, therefore, as a structure of this kind ra- 
diates from each fore-arm, two feather-wings are produced, having their 
external outline curved lke abow. ‘The individual feathers are charac- 
terized by their fine shafts, on each side of which the delicate striation of 
the vanes is seen. The largest of these feathers considerably exceed in 
size that described by Von Meyer. Similar feathers are attached to the 
tail, but with this distinction, that they do not attain the length of the 
wing feathers, and, which is of more importance, they do not radiate like 
the latter from one central point, but spring from both sides of the tail 
throughout its whole length, and start from it at a small angle. The tail- 
feathers form a group of an elongated leaf-like or oval shape, of which the 
narrow end issues from the beginning of the tail, whilst the posterior end 
is broadly rounded, and extends considerably beyond the last caudal ver- 
tebra.” 

On this report Professor Wagner, who had not seen the specimen him- 
self, commented at great length. The characters which, according to him, 
indicate the ornithic affinity of this animal are—the clothing of the an- 
terior limbs, and the tail with feathers, and the structure of the tarsus 
which forms a single bone, which has at its lower extremity three processes 
for the articulation of the three toes. The characters incompatible with 
the type of birds are—the insertion of the wing quills, not as in birds, along 
the whole outside of the hand and fore-arm, but only to a small bone pro- 
bably belonging to the wrist, from which it radiates like a fan. ‘‘ Equally 
strange is the mode of attachment of the feathers on the tail, from which 
they issue on both sides throughout its whole length uniformly amongst 
themselves, whilst the rectrices on the short tail of birds are only attached to 
the last vertebra.” Thevertebral structure is different from the ornithic type, 
“‘but agrees most closely with that of the long-tailed Pterodactyles (Ram- 
phorhynechus).” In birds, the sacro-lumbar column is firmly anchylosed. 
In the fossil, it is free and uncovered. In birds, the tail is short and 
powerful, composed of from five to eight, and rarely nine or ten vertebra, 
each bearing processes, the last being usually the largest. ‘‘ In the fossil, 
the tail is extraordinarily long, and consists of about twenty vertebre, which 
are all elongated, siender, and without processes, the last being the smallest.”’ 
Such a structure accords with that of the long-tailed Pterodactyle. 

In Professor Wagner’s concluding remarks, he says, ‘‘A reptile with 
the simple tarsal bone of a bird, and with epidermic structures presenting 
a deceptive resemblance to bird’s feathers, is far more comprehensible to 
me than a bird with the pelvis and vertebral column (especially the long 
slender series of caudal vertebre) of a long-tailed Pterodactyle, and with 
a perfectly different mode of attachment of the feathers. To this we may 
add, that the identity of these epidermic structures with true birds’ feathers 
is by no means proved; they might still only be peculiar adornments. 
Hiven amongst insects, we find peculiar structures to a certain extent re- 
minding us of feathers; why therefore not also, and in a higher stage of 
development, among reptiles? If nothing of the kind has yet been found 
in the latter class, we have already been accustomed in paleontology to 
meet, in recent discoveries, with previously unknown peculiarities in the 
structure of different organs. Consequently, until I shall be convinced 
by the discovery, in another specimen, of the parts wanting in the one 
now under consideration, I do not hesitate to regard this as a reptile of the 
order Sawria; and I give it the name of Griphosaurus, derived from 
ypupos, an enigma.” 

He further hints that animals analogous to the Griphosaurus may pos- 


200 THE GEOLOGIST. 


sibly have produced the footprints of the Triassic sandstones, and concludes 
by suggesting that “Darwin and his adherents will probably employ the 
new discovery as an exceedingly welcome occurrence for the justification 
of their strange views upon the transformations of animals. But in this 
they will be wrong,” as, according to Professor Wagner, KS the interme- 
diate steps by which the transition of some one living or extinct animal 
from one class into another was effected” cannot be shown. ‘The failure 
of such proof, he says, induces us to reject their views ‘as fantastic 
dreams, with which the exact investigation of nature has nothing to do.” 

We have laid the above brief summary before our readers, and hope 
that some expression of opinion from our numerous contributors may be 
at once evoked. The problem is one which demands the highest efforts 
both of anatomists and geologists. 

GULAUCONITE IN THE LowER Siturian Rocxs.—Mr. Sterry Hunt, in 
1858, noticed, in ‘ Silliman’s Journal,’ that glauconite was probably the 
colouring matter of some Silurian sandstones ; and in the Canadian Survey 
Report for 1859 he gave the analyses of this material from rocks of the 
Quebec group at Point Levis and in the Island of Orleans. In the latter 
rock there are layers which contain more than half their weight of soft, 
rounded, bright green grains, closely resembling the green sand of the 
Cretaceous period. ‘These area hydrous silicate of alumina and protoxide 
of iron, with about 8 per cent. of potash, and differ from glauconite of the 
secondary rocks in their larger proportion of alumina. A similar mineral 
is found in limestones of the Quebec group in Texas, and in the Potsdam 
sandstone of the Upper Mississippi. Sir Roderick Murchison has also 
recorded layers of green sand at the base of the Pleta limestone in Russia, 
and Schmidt in Esthonia and Livonia, in strata overlying the alum slates. 

CANADIAN PLEISTOCENE Fosstts AnD CLimatEe.—Professor Dawson has 
given, in the ‘Canadian Naturalist,’ a complete list of the fossils of the 
drift in Maine, Canada, Labrador, etc. His conclusions are, that a far 
greater degree of cold prevailed during the Pleistocene epoch than at 
pre ent The causes of this difference he attributes to great changes of 

evel, and in the different distribution of land and water; during the cold 
period the relative proportion of land in the Arctic regions being greater 
than at present. 


REVIEW. 


Puysico-Propueticat Essays, on the Loculity of the Eternal Inheritance, 
its Nature and Character, the Resurrection Body, and the Mutual Re- 
cognition of Glorified Saints. By Rev. W. Lister, F.G.S., Vicar of 
Bushbury, and Rural Dean. London: Longmans. 


This work deserves a notice in our pages, from the large amount of 
geology in it, the discoveries of which have been carefully employed in 
determining the meaning of some of the prophecies. We believe that 
many of our readers will be much interested with these portions of the 
work. 

One great feature in Mr. Lister’s volume is that it strives to fairly and 
fully prove that the Scriptures uniformly set before us a physical future, 
and that, in this respect, their authoritative declarations are in exact har- 
mony with the logical deductions and suggestions of science. 

We wish Mr. Lister’s volume success, for the work, taken as a whole, is 
an original one. 


PLATE XI. 


ey 
os 


ee 


—— 


S 


\\h\\ Ny m 
AN NY \ \ i) 
ih TELE NY 
H nh ey 
nh i) 1 it 


i Y, i\ 

i iu, y AN 

( NN ct il 
Wi, sil 0) Hy 


I 


My a 
yt 


RH 


| 
AD 
ITT i HY f 
Hi KK : at Ht LV 
KK ‘ 


| hl 
PUM ee tah i i 
i) Mi) nn) 


SS = 
= = = 
—— a 


SS 
Ss 


Wh 

4}, 

Yi mh) if 
UH Hi 


Hy 


SS 
S 
SS 
SS 


J 
h 
j 


aH 


Vo MEV GM 
enn, 


y 

WNW] 
pape nyt 
Lie HY f 


S 
3S 
S 


Ss S 
SSS 
SSSSSsS~“ 


HUMAN SKULL FROM MUSKHAM, IN THE VALLEY OF THE TRENT. 


(Seale 3 linear.) 


(In the Collection of Dr. Bevor, of Newark. ] 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


JUNE 1862. 


NOTES UPON HUMAN REMAINS FROM THE VALLEY 
OF THE TRENT, AND FROM THE HEATHERY BURN 
CAVE, DURHAM. 


By Pror. Huxtey, F.R.S. 


THe skull from Muskham, in the valley of the Trent, a side view 
of which is given in Plate XI., like the animal bones with which it 
was associated, is stained of a dark-brown colour. The whole of 
those parts of the cranial bones which bound the cranial cavity are 


<< A 
Saag \ 
Se i t 


Fig. 1.—Portion of Skull from Heathery Burn Cave. 


well preserved; but the facial bones, with the exception of a small 
portion of the nasals, are broken away, so as to expose the whole of 
the under-surface of the base of the skull. 

VOL. Vs 2D 


202 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The considerable development of the frontal sinuses and of the dif- 
ferent ridges and processes of the skull, shows it to be that of an adult, 
and the same characters lead me to believe that it belonged to a male. 
Otherwise it is small enough for a female, as its extreme length does 
not exceed 7°2 in., its extreme breadth 5-4 in., and its horizontal cir- 
cumference 204 inches. 

The skull has a very peculiar form. If a line drawn from the 
glabella to the superior curved line of the occiput be made hori- 
zontal, the highest point of the longitudinal median contour of the 
skull will be seen to be situated about the middle of the length of 
the sagittal suture, and from this point the contour shelves rapidly 
downwards, to the brow on the one hand, and to the centre of the 
space between the apex of the lambdoidal suture and the occipital 
protuberance on the other. This last is the most prominent portion 
of the back part of the skull, the median contour below it bending 
forwards to the occipital protuberance, which is a very strong, project- 
ing, triangular process. It follows from this description that a line 
taken from the glabella to the occipital protuberance is shorter 
than one from the glabella to’a point midway between this and the 
lambdoidal suture. The difference between the two is about 0°3 of 
an inch. I find that crania differ a good deal in this respect, the 
occipital protuberance being in many, especially the lower races of 
mankind, the most backwardly situated part of the skull, when the 
glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, while in others, as in the 
present instance, the most posterior part of the skull is situated 
much higher up. 

The line of greatest breadth of the skull is situated nearly in the 
same plane as that of its greatest height, in the position indicated, 
and the auditory foramina may also be said, roughly, to be intersected 
by that plane. The forehead is low and narrow, but not retreating. 
The supraciliary prominences are very well developed and, by their 
form, indicate the existence of large frontal sinuses. The space be- 
tween the glabella and the nasal suture is not really very depressed, 
though on the side view of the skull it appears to be so, by reason 
of the projection of the supraorbital prominences. 

The vertical height of the skull from the centre of the auditory 
foramen to the vertex is 4°8 inches, and the centre of the auditory 
foramen lies about 0°8 of an inch below the level of the glabello-occi- 
pital line. 

The mastoid and styloid processes are well developed. 


HUXLEY—NOTES UPON HUMAN REMAINS. 203 


The base of this skull is remarkable in several respects. The occi- 
pital foramen is placed far back, and its plane is directed more back- 
wards than is usual in human skulls. When the base of the skull is 
turned upwards and the glabello-occipital line is horizontal (its length 
being 6:7 inches), the anterior edge of the occipital foramen lies 1:5 
inch above the line, and a perpendicular let fall from it would cut the 
line 39 inches from its anterior end. A similar line let fall from the 
posterior edge would cut the glabello-occipital line at 5:3 inches from 
its anterior end, and that edge is only 0-9 of an inch above it. Ina 
length of 1:4, the plane of the occipital foramen, therefore, has a fall 
of 0:6 towards the glabello-occipital line. 

In a well-formed European skull, whose glabello-occipital line 
measures 7:0 inches, while its extreme length is 7°25, the distance of 
the anterior edge of the occipital foramen from the glabella, mea- 
sured in the same way along the glabello-occipital line, is 3:8; of its 
posterior edge 5:3. The anterior edge is 1:1 vertically above the line, 
and the posterior edge 1:0 above it. Thus, ina length of 1°5, the 
occipital foramen has a slope of only 0:1 inch, so that, instead of being 
greatly inclined backwards, it is nearly horizontal. 

The skull from the Valley of the Trent belongs to a cranial type 
which seems at one time to have been widely distributed over the 
British Islands. I have seen skulls from rude stone tombs in Scot- 
land with similar characters, and others obtained from the Valley of 
the Thames. There are skulls in the Museum of the Royal College of 
Surgeons exhibiting like proportions, from the remarkable tumulus at 
Towyn-y-Capel, Anglesea, described by the Hon. W. O. Stanley, M.P., 
in the ‘ Archeological Journal’ (Institute) for 1846; and my friend 
Mr. Busk has shown me others from Cornwall. But the skulls 
which most clearly resemble the Trent cranium are some, also from 
river-beds, which I saw in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy 
and in the collection at Trinity College, Dublin, and of which my 
friend, Dr. E. P. Wright, the curator of that collection, has been 
good enough to supply me with excellent casts. Two of these skulls 
are from the bed of the Nore, in Queen’s County, and two from 
that of the Blackwater river, in Armagh, and one of the latter has 
the most extraordinary resemblance to the Trent skull, as the follow- 
ing table of measurements will show :— 

Trent. Blackwater. 


MCAT EN CGH. ee. ites Ss ee eel ee | BO Ue 
ieurth ot glabello-accipital:line <<a 7.0 ke OT 70 


204 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Trent. Blackwater. 
Greatest vertical height from centre of auditory foramen, the 


glabello-occipital line being horizontal . . . - « =~ - 4°8 4:7 
Distance of auditory foramen below glabello-occipital line . . 0°8 07 
Greatest transverse diameter 5'4 5°65 
Transverse diameter at the lower a of ihe “sail suture . 4°4 4°75 
Horizontal circumference . . : Ss Soh coe Coen 20°75 
Transverse arc from one auditory fors amen % the other-¢< 4s wikogzo. we Long) 
Antero-posterior arc from glabella to occipital protuberance. .12°5 12°5 
Antero-posterior arc from glabella to posterior edge of the oc- 

Gipital foramen Ys ses are ee ee ne a 


The plane of the occipital foramen of the Blackwater skull how- 
ever is less inclined, so that this feature may be accidental in the 
Trent skull. The frontal sinuses are also less developed in the Black- 
water skull, but in all other respects the resemblance is very close. 
The other Blackwater skull and one of the Nore skulls are also very 
like the Trent skull, but the remaining Irish skull from the Nore is 
much larger (having a length of 7-8 inches) and more depressed. It 
exhibits in a very marked manner, however, the projection of the su- 
perior part of the occipital bone beyond the occipital protuberance 
which characterizes the other skulls, and it retains a strong resem- 
blance to them in its other peculiarites. 

The Trent skull was found associated with bones* of the Bos longi- 
Srons, Goat, Red-deer, Wolf, and Dog, so that neither on this ground 
nor on any other that I am acquainted with does there seem to be 
any good ground for assigning to it a date earlier than the historic 
or immediately prehistoric epoch. 

I have dwelt thus long upon the Trent skull because of its compa- 
ratively perfect condition, and because, sc far as the imperfect condi- 
tion of the fragments (fig. 2) from Heathery Burn Cave allow me to 
judge, they appear to belong to the same race of rather small and 
lightly-made men, with prominent superciliary ridges and projecting 
nasal bones. The few animal remains associated with them are all 
of recent species, and I see no reason for believing them to be of 
older date than the river-bed skulls. 


* See ‘Geologist,’ vol. iv., 1861, pp. 246, 349, 415, and 495. 


205 


ON THE CRANIA OF THE MOST ANCIENT RACES 
OF MEN. 


By CHaries Carter Biake, Esq. 


The authenticated discovery of human remains in strata of high 
historical antiquity in the Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope, and 
at Muskham in the Valley of the Trent, and the approaching dis- 
cussion which “looms in the distance” of Paleontology consequent 
upon the proximate publication of Sir Charles Lyell’s * Antiquity of 
Man,’ induce me to offer a few observations on the osteological nature 
of the evidences at present afforded to us of man contemporary with 
the mammoths, with a view, if possible, to determine the grade of the 
individuals whose remains have been preserved in suprapliocene strata. 

The deposits on the banks of the Somme (Abbeville, St. Acheul, 
St. Roch), at Grenelle near Paris, at Hoxne in Suffolk, at Brixham 
and Kent’s Hole in the sotth-west of England, under Gray’s-Inn- 
lane in Middlesex, at Maccagnone in Sicily, “the Kjokkenméddings i in 
Denmark, and at Wookey Hole in the Mendips, indicate to us the 
existence of man in a low state of civilization, as proved by his 
weapons, but of whom the osteological ev idences have not yet been 
discovered. In these deposits the bones of extinct mammalia are 
found, as well as a more or less percentage of animals of existing 
species. 

At Engis in Belgium, Massat in France, Aurignac in Gascony, 
Muskham in the Valley of the Trent, the Lake habitations j in Switzer- 
land, proofs of man have been found in strata contemporaneous with 
the most recently extinct animals. 


Fig. 1.—Front view of the Neanderthal skull (scale 3 linear), 


Human remains have also been obtained from the Neanderthal, 
from Plau in Mecklenburg, Mewslade in Glamorganshire, Sennen in 
Cornwall, Montrose, Nether Urquhart in Fiteshire, Plymouth, East 


206 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Ham, and Heathery Burn Cave, Stanhope, of which the antiquity, 
however undemonstrated by the association of extinct animals, has 
been advocated upon more or less amount of geological evidence. 
Many other instances, but of less authentic value, might be added to 
the above. 

I shall discuss sertatim, as briefly as possible, the recorded in- 
stances, before drawing those conclusions which seem to be capable of 
deduction from the facts before us. | 

With respect to the Neanderthal cranium,* unquestionably the 
most interesting of the evidences before us, I have briefly discussed 
in the ‘Geologist,’ vol. iv. p. 895, the question of its grade of 
organization. I hoped that English geologists would have thrown 
light upon the question of its age, and that a discussion might have 
arisen which would have established it either as a skull of compara-. 
tively modern antiquity, or as possibly coeval with the deposits of the 
Somme valley. ‘he apparent ape-like, but really maldeveloped 
idiotic character of its conformation is so hideous, and its alleged 
proximity to the anthropoid Sime of stich importance, that every 


Fig. 2.—Side view of the Neanderthal skull (scale % linear). 


effort should be made to determine its probable date in time. That 
such efforts have not been made, and that the evidence at present in 
possession of English paleontologists is wholly inadequate to enable 
us to draw any conclusion as to its being the representative of any 
given type of mankind, living or extinct, is the object of the following 
observations. 

The fact has not yet been conclusively demonstrated to the satis- 
faction of English geologists that the Neanderthal skull is of high an- 

* This skull is figured in the ‘ Geologist,’ vol. iv. (1861) plate xi. p. 396. 

+ While this paper was going through the press, Professor Husley, F.R.S., kindly 
permitted me to inspect the cast of the Neanderthal skull in his possession. I see, how- 
ever, as yet no suflicient grounds to infer its representing a distinct race of men. 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 207 


tiquity. The time required for the deposition of the four or five feet 
of mud in the cave might have been accomplished in a comparatively 
short space of time. It is not stated at what height in the deposit 
the bones were found. 

Dr. Schauffhausen’s statement, “that the bones adhere strongly 
to the tongue, although, as proved by the use of hydrochloric acid, 
the greater part of the cartilage is still retained in them, which ap- 
pears, however, to have undergone that transformation into gelatine 
which has been observed by Von Bibra in fossil bones,’ is hardly 
precise enough to convince practical geologists of the antiquity of 
the skull. But of the Engis cranium no such evidence is afforded 
us. Itis hardly necessary to repeat the arguments made use of by 
Buckland against Schmerling at the meeting of German naturalists 
at Bonn, which proved the less degree of gelatine in the fossil hyena 
bones than in the human remains from the Belgian cave deposits. 
The condition of the Vale of the Trent skull, which has been appa- 
rently immersed in glue or some analogous liquid since its disinter- 
ment, has deprived us of the only chemical evidence which could 
have decided the question of its antiquity. Professor Huxley ad- 
mitted to his audience at the Royal Institution (Feb. 7, 1862) that, 
with respect to the Neanderthal cranium, “its great antiquity was 
not directly proved, although its date was undoubtedly very early.’’* 
Professor Huxley went on to say, that in the Museum of the College 
of Surgeons there are Australian skulls which closely correspond in 
configuration and development with those of the caverns of Engis 
and the Neanderthal, the differences between which latter were 
‘hardly greater than occurred between individuals of that race, 
while in form the ancient and Australian skulls presented many 
analogies.” 

There are several suspicious circumstances connected with the 
Neanderthal cranium, e. 7. the pathological enlargement of the coro- 
noid process of the left ulna, apparently from an injury during life ; 
the peculiar rounded shape and abrupt curvature of the ribs, analo- 
gous in their appearance to those of a carnivorous animal ; Professor 
Schauffhausen supposes this malformation to arise from an unusually 
powerful development of the thoracic muscles. All these characters 
are compatible with the Neanderthal skeleton having belonged to 
some poor idiot or hermit, who died in the cave where his remains 
have been found. They are incompatible with the evidences which 
might be left in a Westphalian bone-cave of the remains of a normal 
healthy uninjured human being of the Homo sapiens of Linneus. 

Engis (Belqiwm).—Fig. 3.—This skull, which was found by Dr. 
Schmerling in the year 1833 in a cave, with the cave bear, cave hyena, 
elephant, ete. , and has since proved the teterrima causa belli of paleon- 
tologists from the days of Buckland and Schmerling down to our own 
days, exhibits a type of cranium which, if atcention had not been 
speciallycalled to it, as that of an alleged contemporary of the cave bear 
and mammoth, would have been the last to attract the attention of a 


* «Medical Times,’ Feb. 15, 1862. 


208 THE GEOLOGIST. 


eraniologist. This most ordinary type exhibits a fairly-developed 
forehead, a full and high, but not shelving, occiput, supraorbital 
ridges not prominent, and, generally speaking, analogous to dozens 
of Indo-European crania. In the Nepal collection in the British 


i ieee 
¥ 


a 


Fig. 3.—Human skull from Engis (scale > linear). 


Museum there are several skuils which resemble the Engis cranium 
in their configuration. It is dolichocephalic, but does not approach 
to any of the boat-shaped (kumbecephalic) skulls which have been 
afforded to us from graves in Scotland of the early “ Stone period.” 

Massat.—The remains from this bone-cave do not afford us any 
evidences which would lead us to distinguish their cranial type. Only 
a few teeth have been discovered associated with remains of Felis 
spelea, Ursus speleus, Hyena spelea, ete. 

Plaw (Mecklenburg).—Fig. 4.—The skeleton to which this skull 
belonged was found in silicious sand, six feet below the surface, 
associated with bone implements made out of the osseous remains 
of stag and boar. Dr. Schauffhausen says: “A very high antiquity 
was assigned to this grave, as it was wholly unprotected by any 
masonry, and afforded no trace of cremation having been ‘prac- 
tised, nor any implements of stone, clay, or metal.’ Similar argu- 
ments might be adduced in favour of the high antiquity of the 
soldiers buried at Inkerman, who, tossed into a pit naked or with a 
blanket round them, would afford no evidences of masonry, crema- 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 209 


tion, stone, or metallic implements. The cranial appearance of the 
skull i is, howev er, truly remarkable, although it approaches very much 
to the conficuration of the cranium from Montr ose, to which I shall 
presently allude. It is brachycephalic, the occiput being high, and 
the supraorbital ridges well developed. The length from the elabella 
to the occiput is 6” 5 5", the breadth across the parietal tubers 5” 5'". 
Dr. Schauffhausen states: “ Notw ithstanding the great similarity in 
the form of the forehead between this skull and that from the Nean- 
dertha], the prominence of the supraorbital ridges in the latter is 
more marked, and they are completely continuous with the orbital 


Fig. 4.——Human skull from Plau (scale § linear). 


margin, which is not the case in the former. But the skulls are 
essentially distinguished by their general form, which in the one is 
long-elliptical, and in the other rounded.” A portion of the upper 
jaw with the teeth, and the entire lower jaw, have been preserved, in- 
dicating that the Plau man was orthognathous: As in most of these 
cases, the sole chemical evidence of the antiquity of the Plau skele- 
ton is, that “the bones are thick but very light, and adhere strongly 
to the tongue.” More exact analysis of their component parts is 
unrecorded by Dr. Schauffhausen. 

Aurignac (Gascony).—The human remains from this cavern, which 
were associated, but in a way not known, with those of Hlephas pri- 
migenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Megaceros, etc., after their discovery, 
fell into the hands of the mayor of Aurignac. Not regarding the in- 
terests of science, and in order to prevent the dissemination of any 
hypotheses on the subject amongst the Gascons, he carefully collected 

VOL. V. 25 


210 THE GEOLOGIST. 


all the bones together, amounting to seventeen individuals, and caused 
them to be reinterred in the parish burial-ground. Hight years after- 
wards, “ not even the sexton retained any recollection of the precise 
spot at which these human remains had been deposited in a common 
trench.’ Future paleontologists will rank Dr. Amiel, the mayor of 
Aurignac, with the trustees of the Ashmolean Museum, who de- 
stroyed the last specimen of the Dodo, in Oxford. His ignorance, or 
superstition, has deprived Paleontology of one of the most important 
links of evidence ever discovered. No information consequently 
exists of the appearance of the bones, as denoting the race to which 
they might possibly appertain. 7 
Mewslade (Glamorganshire)—Fig. 5.—This cranium Professor 
Busk describes as “ probably that of a female, found together 
with less perfect skulls and numerous other bones belonging to 
six or seven individuals of different ages, from sixty or seventy down to 
three or four years, in a narrow fissure in a limestone quarry at Mew- 
slade in Glamorganshire, and not improbably of the same period as the 


Fig. 5.—Human skull from Mewslade (scale 3 linear). 


bones of animals, ete., found in the neighbouring caverns in Gower 
which have been described by Dr. Faleoner and others. This cranium 
18 obviously of a wholly distinct type from that of the others, though 
still in some respects peculiar.” The frontal region is elevated, the 
supraorbital ridge being only moderately prominent. The alisphenoid 
and the parietal join. The skull belongs markedly to the dolicho- 
cephalie type, and slightly reminds us of the Engis cranium. 

Sennen (Cornwall).—Fig. 6.—In this cranium, which was dis- 
covered in a subterranean peat bog or forest, thirty feet below the 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANTIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 211 


present level of the sea, at Sennen, near the Land’s End, Cornwall, and 
of which Professor Busk remarks that it “ bears some resemblance 
to the Engis cranium of Dr. Schmerling,” the dolichocephalic cha- 


Fig. 6.—Human skull from Sennen, Cornwall (scale > linear). 


racter is strongly marked. The frontal region is retrocedent; the 
occiput shelving backwards. The alisphenoid and the parietal bones 
join for a greater extent than in most Caucasian skulls. The supra- 
orbital ridges are less prominent than in the Plau, more so than in 
the Mewslade crania. The meatus auditorius externus is large; the 
zygomatic arch strong and powerful. 


ee N 


zi \ 
\ 
silo i NTI NIA on onl 
sai i H 
rf] \ 
- 


| 


Fig. 7.—Human skull from Montrose (scale } linear). 


Montrose.—F¥ig. 7.—This, the most typical example of a British 
brachycephalic skull, was found in a tumulus, supposed to belong 


212 THE GEOLOGIST. 
to the later part of the Stone period. In the words of Professor 
Wilson, it “is square and compact in form, broad and short, but 
well balanced, and with a good frontal development. The supra- 
ciliaries are moderately elevated.” 

Nether Urquhart (Fifeshire).— Fig. 8.— This is one of the 
kuwmbecephalic or boat-shaped skulls which were found in a cairn in 
Fifeshire in 1835. It is supposed to belong to the early part of 
the Stone period. This period might be called the protolithic (from 


Vig. 8—Human skull from Nether Urquhart (scale 4 linear). 


mparos, first, and Aias, stone). The long, narrow and shelving occiput, 
the retrocedent frontals, and the prominent supraciliaries, indicate 
the similarity of this skull to that from Sennen, to which I have 
already alluded. 

The researches of Professor Wilson lead him to the result that the 
kumbecephalic (dolichocephalic) races in Great Britain antedated 
the brachycephalic races in time ; those of Professor Nilsson, that the 
brachycephalic men in Scandinavia flourished before the dolicho- 
cephalic races. 

Plymouth.—F ig. 9.—In this small portion of a cranium, “found 
in a limestone quarry at Plymouth, at a depth of about six feet 


Mig. 9.—Human skull from Plymouth (scale 4 linear). 


below the present turf,’ the retrocedence of the forehead is very 
jamariahie. We mere Te . : 5 

remarkable. The supraorbital ridges project but slightly, and are 
discontinuous over the nasal bone. The fractured condition of the 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 2138 


cranium precludes any observation on the form of the occiput or the 
length of the sphenoido-parietal suture. 

East Ham (Valley of Thames).—Mr. Cresy, at the meeting of the 
Geologists’ Association on April 7, 1862, exhibited this skull, as well 
as two others, of supposed less geological antiquity. The conditions 


Fig. 10—Human skull from East Ham (scale 4 linear). 


under which it was found were detailed by him. The “skull was 
found in excavating for the foundations of the Northern Outfall 
Sewer, in East Ham Marshes, at a depth of fifteen feet below the 
surface, the strata being— 


2 feet grass and mould. 
5 ,, yellow clay. 


5 ,, peat. 
3 ,, sand and gravel in which it was found. 
15 feet.” 


With it were discovered two “celts” chipped on the surface, ex- 
cepting the trenchant edges, which were ground, and the lower jaw 
of a cetacean animal, which will form the subject of future remarks 
by Mr. Cresy. Having had the opportunity, through the kindness 
of Mr. Mackie, of examining this skull, I give the following table of 
measurements, taken with tape and rule in the ordinary manner: 
Inches. 
Longitudinal diameter from between supraorbitals to 
inion, : ; TGs 


214 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Inches 

Parietal diameter between parietal tubers . : . St 
Frontal diameter between anterior and inferior angles 

of parietal bones . : : : : : . 43 
Vertical diameter from fossa between occipital condyles 

to top of skull P : ; : : : . 43 
Intermastoid arch from one mastoid to the other, over 

the calvarium 4 : : 5 : . 142 
Intermastoid line, measured in a straight line between 

the points of the mastoid processes. 4 


Occipito-frontal arch, measured by a tape on the surface 
of the cranium from the nasal suture to the posterior 
margin of the foramen magnum : ‘ . 14 
Horizontal periphery, by a tape round the cranium, so 
as to touch the os frontis immediately above the 
superciliary ridges, and the most prominent part of 
the occipital bone . : : : . 204 

In the above table, I have used the system of measurement pro- 
posed by Dr. George Williamson.* 

It appears from the proportion of this (a female) skull, that the 
breadth was to the length as 754: 10, and that it was consequently 
“dolichocephalic.” The type is oval, the frontal being rounded, with 
a flat calvarium, and the parietal tubers moderately developed. The 
occiput is oval, the inion being slightly protuberant; the lower half 
of the supraoccipital shelves gently downwards to the foramen mag- 
num. The occipital condyles are flattened. The alisphenoid and the 
parietal join on both sides of the head, with small ossa wormiana 
intercalated in the suture. The frontal suture is obliterated. Above 
the interorbital space is a slight projection, possibly coincident with, 
though not necessarily an indication of the frontal sinus. Behind 
the coronal suture, the calvarium is slightly depressed, perhaps in- 
dicating the use of a constricting bandage compressing the cranium. 
From these characters it appears that no distinctive points can be 
predicted of this cranium, as differentiating it from the skulls of the 
existing individuals who inhabit the valley of the Thames. ‘To this 
skull was adherent a small amount of fine mud, apparently of the 
same chemical constituency as the clay-bed of the river Thames or 
Lea. The whole of the animal matter was present in the skull, 
which did not adhere when applied to the tongue. 

Borris (bed of Nore), Ireland—The supraorbitals here are slightly 
more prominent than in the Blackwater, less so than in the Valley of 
the Trent skull. The lambdoidal suture is very complex, and developes 
many ossa wormiana on both sides. The fractured condition of the 
skull precludes any observation as to the junction of the parietals 
and alisphenoids, or as to the presence of a paroccipital tubercle. 
Che opportunity of inspecting this skull at leisure has been afforded 
to me by Prof. Huxley. 


ws Te A e . . 5 
Observations on the Human Crania contained in the Museum of the Army Medical 
Department, Chatham.’ Svo. Dublin, 1857, p. 73. 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 215 


Bed of Blackwater River, Armagh (Ireland).—In this skull, 
which has been kindly lent to me by Prof. Huxley, the alisphenoid 
and the parietal join on the right side; the apex, however, of the 
parietal impinges on the alisphenoid on the left: the supraorbitals 
are scarcely, if at all, prominent; the retrocedent frontal, and the 
calvarium sloping gently upwards to the centre of the parietal bone, 
repeat here the characters of the Borris skull and the skull from the 
Valley of the Trent. In the cast, the paroccipital tubercle is slightly 
prominent on the right side. 

Valley of the Trent.—This skull repeats many of the characters 
of the Borris and Blackwater skulls, from which, however, it is 
markedly distinct. The alisphenoid and the parietal join on both 
sides. On the right side the jugular eminence is pronouncedly 
distinct, and indicates a well-defined paroccipital tubercle. The left 
jugular eminence is, however, broken away. The digastric fossa is 
deep; the inion is protuberant. Over each orbit is a ridge, discon- 
tinuous over the nasal suture, and which projects forwards. This 
contains, on each side, large, distinct, and well-defined supraorbital 
foramina. Along the sagittal suture is a slight elevation, or crest, 
analogous to that often observed in the Australian races. The low 
frontal bone reminds the observer forcibly of the Andaman skull,* 
which it does not exceed in regard to its frontal development. 

One of the most important differences which the cranium of the 
Troglodytes Gorilla presents to the human skull has been defined by 
Prof. Owen (Osteological Catalogue of the College of Surgeons) 
to be the more backward position of the foramen magnum, and 
its more oblique plane in relation to the base of the skull in the 
Gorilla, than in man. The almost horizontal direction of the 
foranen magnum in the human species, co-related with the character 
(situs erectus) applied by the Linnean definition to man, is modified 
in the Valley of the Trent skull, and such modification is in the direc- 
tion of the inferior type. ‘The angle made by a line drawn from the 
anterior to the posterior margins of the foramen magnum, with 
the plane of the basioccipital, is more oblique than I have observed 
in any human skull, and markedly more so than in the so-called 
“lowest” races of mankind, as e.g. the Australians and Andaman 
Islanders. This character, coupled with the powerful occipital spine, 
the ridged and crested surface of the lower half of the super- 
occipital, indicative of the action of powerful nuchal ligaments 
to keep the head from falling forwards, the presence of a “ par- 
occipital”? process for the firmer attachment of the rectus capitis 
lateralis, and the slightly more backward position of the occipital 
condyles, seem to indicate that an entirely erect position was 
not the normal attitude of the pre-historical contemporary of Bos 
primigenius in the Valley of the Trent. 

. The skull from the Valley of the Trent exhibits, on the right side 

of the upper half of the superoccipital bone, a partial retention of the 

suture dividing the squama occipitalis from the lower half of the 
* Owen, Trans. Ethn. Soc, 1862. 


216 THE GEOLOGIST. 


superoccipital bone. This character, the “os Ince,” was first 
observed by Dr. Bellamy, in the skulls of the early Peruvians. Prof. 
Tschudi* considered it as a mark of the primeval distinction of the 
Peruvian race, the skulls of which, according to him, manifested this 
alleged “embryonic character” as in the lower mammalia. Morton 
observed it in a Chimu (called by him Chimuyan), and in a Cayuga 
skull. In the British Museum is a large handsome skull, belonging 
to the “ Chincha” type, in which the interparietal bone is manifest. 
In Mr. Edward Gerrard’s most useful and valuable catalogue, recently 
published, the locality is marked as from Pasadama (7. e. Pachacamac), 
near Lima. 

In the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, on No. 5711 (a 
Laplander), Prof. Owen remarks, “the suture between the exoccipital 
and supraoccipital is retained on the right side, and partially so on 
the left.’ Here, however, there are numerous Wormian bones in 
the lambdoidal suture. On No. 5390 (a New Zealander), he says, 
“the upper half of the supraoccipital has been developed as an inter- 
parietal from a separate centre, and has united by acomplex dentated 
suture with the lower half of the supraoccipital.” A similar confor- 
mation exists in a skull from the Roman burial-place at Felixstow, 
preserved in the Anatomical Museum at Cambridge,t and in the 
cranium of a Bengalee. The law which regulates the repetition of 
similar characters in skulls of nations aboriginally distinct is termed 
by Prof. J. Aitken Meigs,t of Philadelphia, “ homoiokephalic represen- 
tation.”’ Analogous congenital varieties or imperfections may be seen 
in almost every ethnic type. Dr. Williamson has described them in 
the Albanian, Singhalese, Timmani, Kosso, Krooman, Fanti, Ashantee, 
Calabar, Burmese (Malay), and Esquimaux; whilst in the Limbu 
tribe from Nepal, an instance has been described by Prof. Owen, in 
which the “interparietal”’ is divided into three distinct gwast-sym- 
metrical portions. Dr. Spencer Cobbold has seen a true inter- 
parietal bone in a skull in the Edinburgh Museum; and I have 
recently observed it in a skull belonging to the Ethnological 
Society’s collection, of which I am not yet satisfied as to the precise 
nation to which it belonged. 

A cursory examination of the bones found with the human skull, at 
the Valley of the Trent, has afforded to me evidence of Bos longifrons, 
Bos primogenius, stag, wolf, goat, and horse. Some of the horn cores 
of Bos longifrons appeared to me to be more curved than usual, but 
the majority exhibited the normal form. 

Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope.—I refrain intentionally from 
offering any remarks on the human remains discovered in this cave, 
as the geological conditions under which they were found have been 
ably detailed by Mr. Elliott, and the human skull will be described 
by Prof. Huxley.§ The condition of the mammalian remains from 
* Rivero and Tschndi, ‘ Autiguedades Peruanas.’ + Davis and Thurnam, p. 29. 
to wie ‘ Description of a Fragmentary Human Skull from Jerusalem.’ Svo. Philad. 
p. 2/9. 


§ See p. 201 of this number.—Ep. Gron. 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 217 


the cave at Stanhope does not indicate a high geological antiquity. 
Although a great range of variation is undoubtedly observable 
in the amount of cartilaginous matter retained in the bones, still 
none adhere to the tongue with the same firm degree of fixation as 
the hyzna remains, e.g. from the Kirkdale Cavern. Moreover, all 
the remains which I have myself examined indicate animals, as the 
ox, horse, otter, badger, water-rat, goat, roebuck, which are still 
found in England, or which, as the wild boar, have become extinct 
during a late historical period. The presence of bronze remains, 
analogous to those used by the early Scandinavians, however, would 
not leave us to infer even a high historical antiquity to these remains. 
The rate at which the stalagmitic formation—in this case extending 
to as much as eight inches of depth—might have been deposited, 
may possibly afford us a means of estimating the age more accurately. 
Practical geologists alone can determine this. The fragmentary 
condition of many of the bones indicates the possibility of their 
having been the débris of repasts. Some small hollow bones have 
been split longitudinally, perhaps to extract the marrow for the 
use of man. Another bone bears the impress of two small teeth 
on one, and another tooth on the other side: such small apertures 
or impressions could have been made with facility by the acuminate 
cuspid teeth of the otter, whose jaw is found in the cave. Not 
so by the tooth of the badger, also found in proximity, whose 
powerful tuberculate molars would not have punctured the bone, 
but crushed it; scarcely by the tooth of the water-rat (Arvicola 
amphibia), whose scalpriform teeth would have eroded the surface of 
the bone without drilling an aperture. One of the punctures is 
squared, and of the same dimensions asthe crown of the upper 
incisor of the amphibious rodent. However, the distance between 
the two most prominent apertures in the bone accords with the 
distance between the two most salient cusps of the premolar and 
molar series in the jaw of the otter, which, deprived of fish, would 
have been glad to partake of a more nutritive food. 

Otter (Lutra vulgaris). We have evidence of the fractured part 
of a skull of this species, which, as well as a ramus of under jaw, 
has been preserved. The jaw is nearly perfect, but the only teeth 
which still remain in it are the canine, the second, p 8, and the third, 
p 4, premolars. Empty sockets alone indicate the spots where p 2, 
m 1 (the sectorial tooth), and m2 have been. The jaw, as well as the 
fractured cranium, is fresh, and contains much of the recent animal 
matter. 

Badger (Meles taxus). The large left ramus of jaw (specimen No. 
50), by the characteristic form of its first true molar, is manifestly that 
of the existing badger. In it the molar series is perfect, with the 
exception of p 2, the molar series, in place, being m 2, m 1, p 4, p 3, 
andp 1. The apex of the canine, as well as the crown of m 1, is 
much worn, indicating the age of the individual to which the jaw 
belonged. The incisor series is absent, and the ascending ramus of 
the jaw, coronoid, condyle, and angle, are broken away. 

RiGee.) V/, AE 


218 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Goat (Capra hircus). The left ramus of the jaw of goat, from 
the Stanhope caves, exhibits m 2, m 38, and p 2, in place, the sockets 
of m1 and of p 8 being left broken in the alveoli, and p 1 being 
absent. In another fragment also of left ramus p 2 and p 38 are left 
m situ. 

Roebuck (Cervus capreolus). The broken fragment of the left ramus 
of the under jaw of Cervus capreolus has lost all the teeth except 
the second and third premolars. These exhibit the characteristic 
sculpturing of Cervus, and present a marked distinction to the caprine 
bones from the same locality. The second premolar is divided 
into two lobes, the anterior being the smallest, and separated from 
the hinder lobe by a notch on the inner side of the crown; the pos- 
terior lobe is subquadrate, and exhibits two islands of enamel, of 
which the hinder is the larger, and transverse to the axis of the jaw. 
The third premolar, approaching nearer to the bicrescentic form of the 
true molars in Ruminantia, is again divided into two lobes, by 
vertical depressions on both the outer and inner sides. The anterior 
lobe is here the largest, and developes a prominent cusp on the inner 
side of the tooth. In it the enamel-island is crescentiform, though 
not extending so far back as the lateral notch. The transverse 
island, in the posterior cusp, is more than double the length of its 
representative in p 2. 

The distal end of the metatarsal of a ruminant has been exposed to 
the action of fire—the end being charred. Evidence of the erosive 
action of the teeth of some carnivore is present on a vertebra, which 
has been gnawed to such an extent as to obscure its specific 
characters. 

Hog (Sus scrofa). Three large canine teeth of the wild boar, one 
of which is partially blackened, and the extremity of another canine, 
indicate the existence of the Sus scrofa ferus in the Durham bone- 
cave. Another more friable evidence consists of the blackened 
symphysis of a young hog, of which the right canine is in place, and 
all the deciduous teeth absent. In the jaw, the germ of p 4 appears, 
which has not yet appeared above the alveolus. 

Horse (Hquus caballus). The unquestionable evidence of the 
existence of the Equus in the Heathery Burn Cave rests upon 
the discovery of a “ corner nipper” (¢ 8) of the upper jaw, right side 
of an old horse, aged about 16 years. 

Water-rat (Arvicola amphibia). The numerous evidences of the 
presence of this elegant-skulled little rodent are so perfectly pre- 
served that, though fragile, the incisor teeth retain their typical 
yellow colour. The fore-parts of two skulls, the left ramus of 
a lower jaw, and two separate small incisor teeth have been preserved; 
and as none of the animal matter has been removed, great doubt 
exists whether any great lapse of time has taken place since their 
being imbedded in the deposit. It is not stated at what depth these 
remains were found, but there is no stalagmite adhering to them, and 
their appearance, lke that of the two copper halfpence (temp. 
Creo. II.), 1s very recent. Mr. J. Elliott (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 169) 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 219 


has told us “ the coins were under very little cover, and might have 
been imbedded very recently.’ The exact depth is, however, 
unrecorded. 

The large flat plate, from (I presume) the bed of the watercourse, 
in the Heathery Burn Cave, is a most interesting relic. Although 
unquestionably modern, it is covered to the depth of + inch with a 
thick deposit of fish-bones, of which the centra, neural arches, and 
hemal arches of the vertebre can be observed, and amongst which 
some bones, possibly those of small frogs or tadpoles, may be 
detected. All these are in a very friable state. 

Errvria.—In the osteological department of the British Museum 
are four skulls, of presumed high historical antiquity, which were 
derived from caves in Etruria. I give the following table of their 
measurements, taken in the same way as I have measured the East 
Ham skull. This table is necessarily defective, as in the skulls 
marked I. M. N. and +, the apical extremities of the mastoid 
processes are broken away, and the horizontal periphery of the 
skull marked + cannot be computed exactly, by reason of the left 
squamosal having posthumously bulged out from the parietals. 


| | 
coos pe eee a 
: 5 S Sao ee Beye l Olea las 
Measurements, : S & : | : Zz | 2 BE z 1 
q 3 aS eS eo} 8 
3 a |/Soleq| a |feia 
Longitudinal diameter .................. 62 am ueey (eae Mele Leela 
Le Seiki) i 52 5z Be 52 52 5 5 
LTT A 2 5 At 43 4i |) — 2 48. 
Wertieah diameter... )..........sses..000 4% Oe Aa Oe DE apy 
ittermastoia arch’ (6.002.300.0106. 149 | 142 | 148 | 144 | — 144 | 143 
Kntermiastardsline), Qo5.46 d... scl sie ed 43 a | 4 A |) S A = 
Occipiotantalarch... io... cccecssesae: 142 | 143 | 142 | 144 | 152 | 14 153 
Porizontal periphery... 3.06... ..09 212 | 20% | 20 | 203 | 21 | 20 | 208 
Proportion of breadth to length, the 
latter being estimated as 10......... 8°518} 8°103| 7321) 7 7 |6°879) 6°666 


In I. M. M. and I. M. N. the occiput is globular, and shelving 
gently downwards. In + it is full and oval, the lower half of the 
supraoccipital being flattened. No undue prominence of the supra- 
orbital ridge, or of the paroccipital tubercles, is observable. Small 
ossa wormiana are present in the lambdoid suture of I. M. M., but 
in I. M. N. the sutures are obliterated; nor does + exhibit any 
peculiarity in this respect. The frontal suture, however, in I. M. M. 
is present. The inion is distinctly marked in I. M. M. and in + ; 
not so, however, in I. M. N. In all three skulls the alisphenoid and 
parietal join. A slight depression of the vertex is indicated behind 
the coronal suture in the three skulls, and especially in I. M. M. 
No history of the specimens has been preserved, nor is there any 
geological or antiquarian evidence demonstrating their antiquity. 


220 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The contrast between the brachycephalic skull marked O, and the 
dolichocephalic one marked +, from the same locality, is signifi- 
cant. 

Switzerland.—Mr. Lubbock, in his memoir on the subject, has told 
us “ Human bones occur in the Pileworks (Pfahlbauten) but very 
seldom, and may no doubt be referred to accidents, especially as we 
find that those of children are most numerous. One mature skull 
was, however, discovered at Meilen, and has been described by Pro- 
fessor His, who considers that it does not differ much from the ordi- 
nary Swiss type.* And while his work was in the press, M. Ruti- 
meyer received from M. Schwab four more skulls, two of which were 
obtained at Nidau Steinberg, one at Sutz, and one from Biel.’”’ Mr. 
Lubbock proceeds to say: “ Whether the Drift race of men were 
really the aboriginal inhabitants of Europe, still remains to be ascer- 
tained. M. Riitimeyer hints that our geographical distribution indi- 
cates a still greater antiquity of the human race.” No general 
statement of facts is, however, adduced in support of M. Rittimeyer’s 
theory, which the negative evidence, which proves that human bones 
are as capable of preservation as those of mammalia, tends to refute 
until observation and demonstration shall establish the greater anti- 
quity of man. 

A human cranium belonging to the first age of iron, from Tiefenau, 
exhibited exactly the same profile as the cranium from Sanderum- 
gaard. M. Morlot states that the height of the Swiss cranium is 
identically the same, and the length is a little (5 millimetres) longer 
than that of the Danish cranium. (Morlot, ‘Etudes Géologico-Ar- 
chéologiques,’ p. 317.) 

Objects of human art have been found at various depths in a 
tumulus near the Tiniére rivulet, which flows into the Lake of Geneva 
near Villeneuve. In order that my readers may understand more 
clearly M. Morlot’s reasoning, I transcribe his diagram and refer- 
ences. 


P B RN 
ACTUAL SECTION or THE “CoNE DE D&JECTION TORRENTIELLE DE LA TINIBRE.” 
From A. Morlot, ‘Legon d’ouverture d’un Cours sur la haute Antiquité, fait 3 PAcadémi 
quite, fait 4 Académie 
de Lausanne en Novembre et Décembre 1860.2 8vo. Lausanne, 1861. 

R. Bed of the Roman age. 

a ae of the Bronze age, date 3000 to 4000 years ago. 

S. Bed of the Stone age, date 5000 te 7000 years, in which were found, at a, a piece of 
pottery ; at 4, a human skeleton, which appeared to have been laid in a tomb, and 
of which the very small, round, and remarkably thick head presented the Mon- 
ov © yd a vé e 7 re 7 . 
gohan or 'Turanian “ brachy cephalic” type, strongly marked; at d, many frag- 


* Dolichocephalie 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 221 


ments of very coarse pottery, much charcoal, and broken pieces of the bones of 
various animals—a proof that man had inhabited that precise spot. | 

A. Central azis of the cone, transversely bisected by the railway. It is here that the 
torrent flowed in ordinary times, before the dykes had been constructed. 

CC. Surface of the cone, when the torrent was commenced to be dyked. This line is, 
to a certain extent, ideal; all the others are real, and have been actually observed 
as they are represented in the section. 

MN. The iron road. 

V. Bridge acting as aqueduct to the torrent which crosses the railway. 

OPN. In this space exclusively all those distances are included which have served to 
establish chronological calculations. These distances, often repeated, are capable 
of being taken here very exactly ; they can be considered as exact almost to half 
an inch. 

The section has been interrupted at M, because it became indistinct here. Its 
southern extremity was complete in every relation. 


Kjokkenmoddings (Denmark).— Numerous human skeletons from 
the ancient deposits of Denmark, in which the remains of extinct ani- 
mals, with one exception (Bos primigenius) have not been found, have 
been afforded to us. The skulls are brachycephalic, and possess 
well-defined supraorbital ridges. M. Morlot says “that their front 
teeth did not overlap as ours do, but met one another, as those of 
the Greenlanders of the present day. This evidently indicates a 
peculiar manner of eating.’ The value of this assumption could only 
be estimated by the illustration of a drawing, showing in what way 
such close juxtaposition of the incisor teeth was effected. This evi- 
dence, however, is not given to us, and those who are acquainted 
with the range of dental variation in man, however they might con- 
sider a conformation of this sort indicative of a peculiar description 
of food, will hardly affirm that the builders of the tumuli had “a 
peculiar manner of eating.” M. Morlot, although he quotes the 
Greenlanders, Egyptians, and other nations as exhibiting the same 
dental peculiarity, the incisors being worn away. so as functionally to 
resemble molars, 1s evidently not aware of the fact that this confor- 
mation has been observed even amongst British sailors, and that it is 
due solely to the triturating action of the hard substances used by 
them as food. In the sepulchral edifices of the early Danes, carefully 
constructed of large hewn stones, M. Morlot has discovered numerous 
erania, of which, he says, the type can be established. “ It is a small 
head, remarkably rounded in every way, but with a rather large facial 
angle, and a forehead which does not bear the mark of a slightly- 
developed intelligence. This type reminds one of that of the Lap- 
lander, but it cannot be precisely affirmed to be identical with it.”’ 
One from Sanderumgaard, of the Iron period, in the island of Fyen, 
is dolichocephalic, with a slightly retrocedent frontal. Practical 
cranioscopists are aware that the range of variation in the skulls of 
the Indo-European races is such as to exhibit many crania of these 
two types amongst the existing races of Europe and Asia. Paleon- 
tologists are under a lasting debt of obligation to M. Morlot, who 
has, by his researches on the later geological strata of Switzerland, 
furnished us with an almost inexhaustible mine of information on the 
contemporaneity of man with the extinct animals at both the Kjok- 


222 THE GEOLOGIST. 


kenmoddings and Pfahlbauten.* Human osseous remains have not 
been demonstrated in the Kyokkenméddings themselves, according to 
the testimony of the latest observers of these shell-deposits. 

The broad ground may be admitted, that the earliest Briton skulls 
generally exhibit a supraorbital projection, which attains in its deve- 
lopment, however, nothing like the size of the ridge in the Neander- 
thal cranium. The majority of the British, Hibernian, and Caledo- 
nian skulls figured by Messrs. Davis and Thurnam7 exhibit a large 
supraorbital ridge. ‘This character is also present in a few of the 
Saxon skulls. 

The supraorbital development of the Briton skull from Ballidon 
Moorf is fully equal to that of the Engis cranium. ‘The Neanderthal 
skull, however, admittedly stands sw generis. 

The Museum of Natural History at Copenhagen contains skulls 
of the “ Stone Period” in Denmark with an excessive supraorbital 
projection. | 

Aboriginal American races of high antiquity often exhibit a large 
supraorbital development. ‘l'his may be seen on examining Morton’s§ 
plates ofthe Peruvian from Pachacamac (“ Temple of the Sun’’), plate 
lia, and the skulls of mound-builders from the Upper Mississippi 
(plate 52), Tennessee (plate 55), and Steutenville, in Ohio (plate 68). 

The frontal development of the Australian race, accompanied by an 
absence of the frontal sinus, has been frequently noticed, and several 
Australian skulls have the supraorbital ridge overhanging the origin 
of the nasals to the degree shown in the skulls from Engis and the 
Valley of the Trent. 

Supraorbital development in the Negro is far from being a constant 
character. It is undoubtedly present in many of the lower Negroes, 
but I have now before me a skull from Ashantee which exhibits less 
supraorbital development than many of the skulls from the “ Stone 
period’ in Denmark. 

In India, the range of variation offered by the Hill-tribes of Nepal 
exhibits the supraorbital ridge under a variety of aspects. The low- 
caste individuals, perhaps of all nations, have a greater tendency to 
repeat this character than the more elevated types. In Huropeans, 


* A. Morlot: 
‘ - ’ es r ait kG . : 

1. Legon d’ouv erture d’un Cours sur Ja haute Antiquité, fait A Académie de Lausanne 
en Novembre et Décembre 1860.’ 8vo. Lausanne, 1861. 

» © Ro ane 1 “1 n 0 1 
aa _Remarques sur les formations modernes dans le Canton de Vaud.’ (Bulletin de la 
saa aes audolge des Sciences naturelles, tome v. No. 40.) Svo. Lausanne, 1857. 

0. “Ktudes Geologico-Archéologiques en Danemark et en Suisse.? 8yo. Lausanne, 
1860. (Bulletin, ete., tome v. no. 46.) 
/ c » Dna Sacdisetee ° . 7 
4. “On the Post-Tertiary and Quaternary Formations of Switzerland.’ 8vo. 


aie ley acs ae She : ; 
5. “Recherches sur les Habitations lacustres des environs d’Estavayer,’ par M. Biot de 


Vevay et Henri Rey, redigées par M.Morlot. (Extrait des Mémoires de la Société des 
Autiquaires de Zurich, tome xiii.) 4to. 

7 ‘Crania Britannica.’ 4to and folio. London: 1856. 

t Loc. cit. 


Wa a Pe +¢ Apps a? y]< } 2 
§ *Crania Americana. Philadelphia: 1839. In a Pachacamae skull before me 
there is a very slight supraorbital development. 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANOIENT RACES. 223 


however, of high intellect this conformation may frequently be re- 
marked ; and I have observed it in more than one person with whom 
it was correlated with a high degree of mental ability. 

The words of Professor Owen, applied to the Nepal crania, are also 
applicable to the remains from the Stone period. ‘“ There are not 
more than two or three skulls in the entire series which would have 
suggested, had they been presented to observation without previous 
knowledge of their country, that they belonged to any primary divi- 
sion of human kind distinct from that usually characterized by cra- 
niologists as Caucasian or Indo-European ; the majority might have 
been obtained from graveyards in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and 
have indicated a low condition of the Caucasian race. ... They pre- 
sent varieties in the proportion of length and breadth of cranium, in 
the development of the nasal bones, in the divarication or prominence 
of the malar bones, in the shape of the forehead, in the degree of 
prominence of the frontal sinuses and projection of the supraciliary 
ridge, which would be found perhaps in as many promiscuously-col- 
lected skulls of the operatives of any of our large manufacturing 
towns, and which would be associated with corresponding diversities 
of features and physiognomy.’’* 

The range of variation offered by the above skulls (the Neanderthal 
cranium excepted) is, on the whole, not greater than between a large 
series of the skulls of any given district—as, e.g., Nepal. Neither 
in the size of the supraorbital ridge; the extent of frontal develop- 
ment; the form of the occiput, whether shelving, vertical, or globular ; 
the persistence of an interparietal bone; the presence or absence of 
a sphenoido-parietal suture ; the position of the condyles; the deve- 
lopment of sagittal or lambdoidal crests; the size, shape, or position 
of the styloid or vaginal processes—have any of those differences 
which so prominently characterize the Homo sapiens been departed 
from, nor any of the simial features superadded or retained as em- 
bryonal characters; nor have the latest published demonstrations of 
the anatomical characters of these ancient crania by the ablest advo- 
cates of the hypothesis of direct selective transmutation afforded us 
any satisfactory evidence to break down the broad bridge of demarca- 
tion which still separates us from the inferior animals. 

The researches of Professor Steenstrup and others have led to the 
proposition of a series of periods, as exhibited in the annexed table, 
in which the propositions put forth by the advocates of the excessive 
antiquity of man are set forth in a tabular form. Direct contempo- 
raneity of e.g. the denizens of the Kjokkenméddings with the 
Natchez mound-builders is not inferred. “ It would have been very 
much better for geology if so loose and ambiguous a word as 
‘contemporaneous’ had been excluded from her terminology, and if 
in its stead some term, expressing similarity of serial relation and 
excluding the notion of time altogether, had been employed to 


* Owen, ‘ Report on a Series of Nepalese Skulls.’ Transactions of the British Asso- 
elation, 1859. 


224: THE GEOLOGIST. 


. . . ° e 99 
denote correspondence in position in two or more series of strata,” * 
and Professor Huxley uses the term homotaxis as expressing such 
relation. 


pena eae oe: (Denmark) a ae | 
Beech. Workers in Iron. Dolichocephalic. 
Oak. Workers in Bronze. Dolichocephalic. Switzerland. 
Pine IBIAS ely ON NER Brachycephalic. Pe eres 
; but ground in Stone. Nees 


Hatchets not ground, 


S Valley. 
but chipped in Stone. See a eY 


| PLIOCENE. 
| 
EOCENE. 


| 
MIOCENE. © | 


It has been further sought to show, that, as in Denmark and some 
other localities, a regular scale of division of the humatile strata into 
beech, oak, and pine-producing deposits prevails, each respectively 
coincident with iron, bronze, and stone remains, that an analogous 
distribution in time prevailed during the deposition of the extra- 
Kuropean humatile strata. Neither observation nor analogy, however, 
demonstrates this assumption. In the whole American continent, 
although we have the chipped flints and celts from Natchez and 
Chiriqui,} the obsidian knives from Mexico, and the arrowheads from 
Tierra del Fuego, the copper and gold implements from Peru and 
Chiriqui, the American mind never devised the plan of smelting 
iron from the ore, and applying the metalliferous residue to a useful 
purpose. The so-called “Tron Age’’ never existed in America. 

The division of human crania into “brachyeephalic”’ and “ doli- 
chocephalie” originated with the late Professor Retzius. Like the 
arbitrary and conventional divisions of other anthropologists into 
“orthognathous” and “ prognathous,” it was convenient as afford- 
ing easy and intelligible descriptive terms for crania of diverse races. 
As a test of distinction of race, however, it is an insufficient mark of 


distinction. The supporters of the theory have based on it the fol- 
lowing classification.t 


* Huxley, Address to Geological Society, 21st February, 1862. 


+ W. Bollacrt and ©. C. Blake on Antiquities from Chiriqui: Ethnological Society, 
March 18, 1862. : 


£ On Fossil Man. Royal Institution. February 7, 1862. 


BLAKE—ON THE OCRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 225 


“As types of these two varieties of crania, Professor Huxley ad- 
duced the West Coast African negro and the Turk. The typical 
cranium of the West Coast African negro is long and narrow, its 
transverse measurement being only six or seven tenths of the longi- 
tudinal, while the side to side diameter of the Turk’s skull is as much 
as eight or nine tenths of the fore and aft measurement. The facial 
angle of the skulls also was different, owing to the projection of the 
jaws in the negro: the dolichocephalic skull was prognathic, while 
the brachycephalic skull was orthognathic. The most striking de- 
velopments of these diversities were associated with the greatest 
differences of climate and situation. If a line be drawn from the 
centre of Russian Tartary to the Bight of Benin, the north-eastern 
extremity of the line would represent the centre or pole of the 
brachycephalic orthognathic variety, the south-western would be 
the centre of the dolichocephalic prognathic type. The centre of 
Russian Tartary was distinguished by an arid climate and great 
diversities of heat and cold, and presented the strongest contrast 
with the hot, moist, reeking swamps of the Western Coast of Africa. 
Now, in whatever direction we diverge from these dolichocephalic 
and brachycephalic centres, we find the type beginning to fade and 
to pass into the opposite. Thus, diverging from the brachycephalic 
pole, if we pass eastward into China, we notice the population be- 
coming more dolichocephalic and prognathic ; if we travel northward 
to the Aleutian Islanders, Esquimaux, and Greenlanders, we observe 
them more or less long-headed as compared with the Tartar type. 
The same divergence of type is seen on leaving the dolichocephalic 
centre; the peculiarities of the Western African cranial conforma- 
tion gradually subside and approach in proportion the other type. 
Another line drawn across the centre of the former from the British 
Islands to India would mark a population whose skulls may be said 
to be oval, presenting a medium between the dolichocephalic and 
brachycephalic conformation.” The question was then raised “ whe- 
ther the distribution of cranial forms had been the same in all periods 
of the world’s history, or whether the older races, in any locality, 
possessed a different cranial character from their successors.” 

The induction that, on the whole, the brachycephalic type of 
cranium is more ancient than the dolichocephalic is capable only of 
a limited application. The skulls from Sennen, Plymouth, and 
Mewslade, said to be of antiquity transcending human historical 
records, all belong, as Professor Busk has stated, to the dolicho- 
cephalic type. If brachycephalic-skulled men existed before these, 
their remains have not been vouchsafed to us, in England at least. 
In the Continent, on the contrary, the Engis skull, said to be “the 
oldest relic of man on record,” exhibits a dolichocephalic type. So 
does the Neanderthal skull, “ the lowest in rank of any human being,” 
exhibit, as well as can be ascertained from its fragmentary state, a 
long-headed or dolichocephalic type. These two types, therefore, 
“the oldest’? and “the most degraded,” according to the precon- 
ceived theory, belong to the so-called modern or dolichocephalic 

VOL. V. 26 


226 THE GEOLOGIST. 


type, said to be coeval with the bronze and iron periods of man. So 
far their craniological nature per se fails to demonstrate their anti- 
uity. 
; Gevesal biological analogy would not lead us to suppose that short- 
headed races of men first existed in this planet. We almost invariably 
find the “lowest ’’ races of animals first. The “dark races of man,’’* 
comprehending the Negros and Australians, are the lowest in our 
classification. They, if any, offer most affinity to the anthropoid 
apes. They are dolichocephalic. It would be far more consonant 
with analogy to suppose that the ‘dark races’’ once stretched over 
the tropical regions of the globe, and have left their modified de- 
scendants in Africa, Australia, and the Andaman Islands,} long pre- 
vious to the introduction, origin, or derivation of the hghter races of 
the Old World, than to infer the existence of a supposititious race 
of short-headed men with or without simial supraorbital ridges, who 
flourished over the whole earth (America inclusive) antecedent to 
historical time. Speculation on this subject must be checked till we 
know what are the most ancient crania of the autochthonous tribes 
of the earth. In America, the mound-builders of the Mississippi 
valley are possibly the mcst ancient aborigines of North America. 
They are certainly brachycephalic to a 
degree transcending the existing Ame- 
rican races. But the modern Quichua 
skullt (often termed Inca) is almost as 
short-headed, and the Quichua race has 
not the shghtest claim to ethnological 
antiquity. Antecedent to the Quichua 
Ney ly JIMA races, the “ Flat-heads’’ of Titicaca (not 
NS, l Aes Ga ui’ satisfactorily identified with the Aymaras) 
CARO agg” = who peopled Bolivia and Southern Peru 
= for ages of unrecorded duration, even 
4 Pied ® giving due allowance for distortion by 
Hig. 12.—Mississippi mound- artificial pressure, exhibit a long-headed 
bulger. or dolichocephalic type. A plausible hy- 
pothesis has even been mooted, that the Titicacan Flat-heads dis- 
torted their crania, with a view to perpetuate the remembrance of 
the dolichocephalic character of their ancestors. Retzius has at- 
tempted to identify the “Ancient Peruvians” of Morton, and the 
so-called “ Huancas”’ of Tschudi, with the eastern dolichocephalic 
races of South America. This writer by no means coincided with 
those authors who consider the brachycephalic mound-builders of 
Mississippi as the remains of the typical American stock. He 
pointed out that in the eastern part of the American continent, 
from north to south, the dolichocephalic type predominated. The 
remains from the Brazilian bone-caves, described by Castelnau and 


* Knox. Raees of Men. 

+ Possibly in Ceylon, according to Mr. Brayley, F.R.S.: Medical Times, May 10, 1862. 
t Fide Kthnological Socicty’s Transactions, May 6, 1862, for my paper “ On the 
Cran al Characters of the Peruvian Races.’—C.C.B. 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 227 


Lund, with retrocedent and possibly flattened crania, are dolicho- 
cephalic, and, according to Retzius, represent the primeval popula- 
tion of Brazil. Whether the flattening of their skulls was artificial 
or natural, may well be doubted. If natural, the succession of crania 
in Bolivia, Eastern Brazil, and Peru, would be as follows :— 

1st. Natural Dolichocephali. 

Brazilian bone-caves. 

Oldest builders of Tia-huanaco (?). 
2nd. Artificial Dolichocephali. 

Titicacans, Aymaras. 

3rd. Artificial Brachycephali. 

Pachacamac, Quichuas, Incas, Atacamans. 
Changos. | 

The mounds termed Koorgan or Bongor in the Government of 
Tomsk, of which the antiquity is unascertained, containing brachy- 
cephalic skulls, afford no evidence of bronze or chipped stone 
implements. “The weapons and other objects found by MM. 
Meynier and d’Hichthal, in the tumuli, are either of bone or iron; 
the ornaments are of bone, melted silicate, polished quartz, or 
copper; there were, moreover, in one of the tumuli fragments 
of pottery ; in another the remains of a wooden vessel. All the 
tumuli, without exception, had some remnants of iron tools or 
weapons, but none of bronze, the metallic ornaments found being 
east in copper, exactly like all others our travellers have met with in 
Siberia in the collections of dilettanti. The cranium bears in all the 
skeletons strong marks of relationship with those which Retzius 
has designated under the name of ‘ Brachycephali,’ their chief 
feature [sic in orig.| being the rectangular form of the orbital cavity, 
a form common to all Mongolian races. MM. Meynier and d’Eichthal 
are, nevertheless, inclined to believe that several different kinds of 
tumuli must be distinguished in Siberia, and that it would be prema- 
ture to consider all these tombs as pertaining exclusively to a single 
race.’ 

Supporters of a derivative hypothesis of the human race from 
existing species of anthropoid apes have drawn a parallel between 
the dolichocephalic chimpanzee, and the dolichocephalic negro of 
Western Africa, and also between the brachycephalic oran-outan of 
Borneo and the brachycephalic Malay of the same locality. Ethnic 
centres of specific dispersion in time have been inferred from this 
geographical distribution. The remarkable alleged coincidence of the 
long-headed ape with the most long-headed man, and the short-headed 
ape with his short-headed human representative, and inferred de- 
scendant, certainly seemed a fact which might iead anthropologists to 
admit a possible transmutation. Reference, however, to the simple 
facts of the case gives a totally different aspect to this surmise. 
When we examine the skulls of the young oran-outan and chim- 
panzee, side by side, before their typical characters have been masked 
by superadded peculiarities connected with their functional require- 

* Comptes Rendus, Acad. Sciences, 1862. 


228 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


TABLE SHOWING THE ASSOCIATION OF THE EARLIEST EVIDENCES OF THE 
HUMAN RACE WITH THE REMAINS OF EXTINCT AND RECENT MAMMALIA. 


Fossil species in italics. 


x | Neanderthal. 


x | Engis. 
x x © | Abbeville. 


Mian nee cece e scans 
HOMiSISPCVEO Martane | -.6\lee 
Ursus spel@ust .....4...)... 
Ursus priscus ..... Stir eel (eibal hea 
Hyena speleat ..... sage ite x 


Bones x. 


Works o. 


Domesticated Animals 4. 


© | St. Acheul. 
© | St. Roch. 


soe 


Pars ce GC 


x 


Machairodus latidenst+.\...\...|...|...|...|...|.. 


Machair. megantereont 
Bos primigeniust ... 


seelees 


OOOO Si lon 5 


alte 
BOS VONGUTONSE or. c1chen |. 


Bos frontosus (7) 
Bison priscust 
Ovibos moschatust...... 
Elephas primigeniust...|... 
Lilephas antiquust ......)... 
Rhinoceros tichorhinus?)... 
Lhinoceros leptorhinus+\.. 
Hippopot. majort ......4... 
EGUUSOSSUIUS) angen en 
Cervus megacerost......|... 
Cervus strongylocerus...|... 
Cerv. psendovirginianus)... 
Cervus Somonensist 
Cervus Guettardi 
Cervus Bucklandi 
Cervus tarandus 
Cervus elaphus 
Cervus alces ......,. 
Cervus capreolus.,. 
Cervus dama .,, 
Sus*scrotaG 2 
Phoca gryphus 
Lutra vulgaris 
CSTE MUD US cs ccctie dose ds 
Canis vulpes ............ 
Canis familiaris§] 
Felis catus9] 
Melibelwrie eset een eee eds lag: 
Mustela putorius.........)0..[... 
Mustela erminea | 


eleee 


eee 


see 


tee 


Cee ease vesieesivae 


eefeeetecels oe 


seele 


eae 


OUI OO OO 


Mustela martes 
Mustela foina 
Sorex vulgaris..,......... 
Krinaceus europmeus 


Hypudeeus amphibius...)...)...)...}.. 


seelewe 


vaeleee 


see 


aol 


Siwiel| heiate’ 


OOM lic cacy 


efewefene 


seston 


soe 


© | Hoxne. 


xe 


rs eres eee 


eee le welaae 


eertewelens 


fo) | Brixham. 


2-0 | Gray’s Inn Lane. 
x | Mewslade. 


x KKK XX OC | Kent’s Hole. 


sfaeefeeetone 


eert ewe teveje 


epee ete el eoe 


seelees 


~flewelecsives 


eeeleee 


Nether Urquhart. 


Montrose. 
Plymouth. 


weep ewaleee 


Valley of the Trent. 
Heathery Burn. 


welewefeeetane 


Oo os ee 


Pliocene Mammalia f. Pleistocene 


Switzerland. 


x : x x o | Maccagnone. 


seelees 


+ 
+: 


ey Hole. 


x 


© | Kjékkenméddings, etc. 
© | Wool 


5g 8 


eertecetoane 


weelees 


eerbows 


seclees 


BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 229 


TABLE SHOWING EARLIEST EVIDENCES OF HUMAN RACE, &c.—continued. 


3 
— 
aS o 
. f=} ~ 
3 3 One & 
q S ais SEH G 
4 3) |o/5l_| sisi 
ri 5 i . o i! 
E | doe Felis let | JE] fs /S) Ee) eye lis 
Bl |S] elsis}.| [8] jg) Sl4ls] ./ SP S/S Bis] al ale 
o| -ls(a|8iai# Slo] S| ml m|—|/e/e1 815] bp] 3] Oo] sj 8] 8 
a\.2 | 0 a m| | .of) a|S1 35 Rey) =| o1p/N] o13/4 
Sl hl o| S14) S| a] Stel ele S| BIE] Se) el S] BIiSlels] else 
| alo] las] =| S|) 5] S| 8] 0] 8) 9) 8) S10] Ss) o] 2) sis} e 
Ala\Sa|olalS Sa SHA Slalola alae lelal ale |= 
Capias pens iashic ase Ja a eabrere tetera GR Meee alate ol siatedf areal oe 0 ae a Saleem |eee lol ss lick 
Capra hircus] ......... coe | STE HOR he es i | eel Pl ae i (ei (Re (Se fet a (a SOME SNS seal Saatloed 
Antilope rupicapra ...... PURER ease nl Mullis fom Mel cect ncal are ccral aiel evel aie | arf oie {LX dels | wars fesse 
Ovisvamies | foM 2s... sole olla rte Bel Sisal ier eens leo Eel ipl aE re mel Bl (ee ee Mee ese (Ae (Oe to ge Ba 
WSUS aLetds cazcetsss>..4...|... a eeatieslneeleras tse a a al OR ea aoe See aoe (2a oA based Sed aA 
Mle ecenn magne: panes | cls... fo.0|.. vce .cc|:.- Helge ches aS. PE eae amelie Meta rie La cal fae ie fe (a 
Mie MMSE MEE em eset 5) Woe | ost |i S[o sal avs|s ccf eefelaelaen|ore [eee [oes |enrm| eon fene [er XSI ated [ik 
ASO SPE EUS gals oles |. chesa| onelsee|ene}os' pA al | an Me I . om 
Wee ie MER ei | sl. le. aPe loa cu. |niege|ves|-+-oustee Sil acles cigar Xi eealinwsleat 
Eveourprins sequin || 20)... |. .a[e..[ce.|-e-feee] 2s|ae-| X [eo |coadens oh 
PME WIEGIENAPRESUISe ok. 2. |02.12..|c.+|soxlcodlaos|acs|uaefres[eve| oes RAS Lawes ral 
Arvicolay pratensis! 3, ./.3./:5-|6 5h ass |et- elie) aloe nga inte 7 Py eed a POP atte ioral ce cl eal tiaal sel ee ee 
Lepus variabilis .........|... Py ae ase aro ake Gen eee fee Cece sa a pes ae Sec ECAR ete eel eat legssol ere inca ute 
Lepusicaniculus ......:...|... S| en a) al el ee oe a Ba hoc eee | GE EN ene (eeee el Fee kaze (ees ree ae ee 
Caste NCE o.oo 5 sce cass|ass eran Belk daa tases [eee lee « sesh esl Mie tae | steal etl tes re ogc | move dleaait Oa cel XG eke 
Sciurus vulgaris ..,......|... “2 || ee Sor sm ene Ie seal eadiasl meses (eats 5) (ae feel eee neta ae Bite (Peal (aa 
Hiquuseaballus Yi sy.. 0.0 da XP | Aen eee ar | we | Ure ae <p | all ack Na moet 
Equus asinus§] ......... [2 at cl xe ee 2 | ol asecr Xiseatess aleae 
i 


The above table may be epitomized as follows :— 
The dolichocephalic skulls are here marked D; the brachycephalic, B. 


No. of | No. of 
Locality. extinct | recent 
species. | species. 


Total. 


Neanderthal. D......... 
SSE De sa tote bs 
Atbbevalleweik For lees 


Grenelle.. 7 cesawcscance, 
MaSSat ce sey sone. eos 
Plat sobs eis Cae aah seen 
PAUIGIOMAC. WP Liyadeect ec 
Vossen eaten aces 


—! 
— 


IMTS ROIS apenas aes 1 
Grays Inn Lane ......... 
Miewslades 2 Divic..4.- 
DENMEH a Dea presse 
Montrose. (Bate<cn...cs, 
Nether Urquhart. D... 
Edvamoutlie Wie es. a 
Vale of Belvoir. D..:. 
Heathery Burn. D... 
Swatzerlande IBin. ccs 
Maceagnone 7 ...20...... 
Kjékkenméddings, etc. B 
Wookey: Hole verve ac... 10 


(os) 
EBENITOCOCODRF FP RP OW OBR OO OO 


« 
© 
Pee NAN POC COCOCOOCFKWOWwrooodr doe 


WN FOWTDCODVOCORPWOAWNON BP WOLMO OO 
= 
(JX) 


— 
pe 
HE o> CO 


230 THE GEOLOGIST. 


ments, we see that the young oran-outan, gorilla, and chimpanzee 
have the transverse diameter of the skull proportionately equal,* and 
that the apparent length of the head in the chimpanzee is produced 
by the greater development of the supraciliary ridges than in the 
oran-outan. In the young gorilla, also an African ape, coincident in 
its geographical distribution with races of dolichocephalic negros, 
the transverse diameter actually slightly exceeds in Deslongchamps’ 
5th plate that of the oran-outan. For all practical purposes of 
classification, however, it may be said that in youth, before the action 
of the biting muscles has altered the typical outward aspect of the 
brain-case, the oran-outan, gorilla, and chimpanzee exhibit skulls of 
which it cannot be predicted that each exceeds the others in the pro- 
portion of its transverse diameter. | 

Professor Deslongchamps says, “‘ Pour bien saisir les rapports, 
souvent cachés, des étres entr’eux, l état adulte ne suffit pas toujours ; 
dans cet état, ce sont surtout les différences qui se prononcent; dans 
les premiers ages, les ressemblances sont plus accusées, les affinités 
sont moins masquées. I] est utile, dans l’étude des animaux, d’imiter 
les botanistes, qui vont chercher les affinités des genres et des familles 
des végétaux dans les premiers rudiments des fruits, de la graine, de 
Yembryon, etc. Le groupe des singes anthropoides est remarquable 
entre tous par les changements, je dirais presque par les métamor- 
phoses, que subissent leurs tétes.” + The comparison of the skulls of 
the anthropoid simi in their young state, made by the cautious and 
philosophical Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at Caen, therefore, 
may be accepted as evidence against the hypothesis of the coincidence 
and derivation of the short and long-headed races of men with and 
from the alleged brachy- and dolichocephalic genera of Asiatic and 
African apes. 

The foregoing table is drawn up with a view to exhibit generally 
the number and proportions of extinct and existing mammalia which 
have been found in a fossil state in deposits where the remains of 
man have also been discovered. With no pretensions to complete- 
ness, it may yet serve as a convenient record, and may, to a certain 
extent, demonstrate the greater antiquity of e.g. the Abbeville beds 
as compared with the Danish Kjékkenméddings, evinced by the 
greater proportion of extinct species in the former deposit. It must 
however be borne in mind that the mammalia of the Somme valley 
may not have attamed a more northern range during the post- 
pliocene age, whilst boreal species existing in England and Denmark 
at the same time might leave no remains in post-pliocene strata in 
Gascony or Sicily. We know too little respecting the distribution 
of mammalia over limited areas in the later tertiary strata to entitle 
us to form any comprehensive generalization. 

In this table, 1 have made use of the researches of M. Lartet 
(Geol. Journal, 1860, p. 471 and 491, and Natural History Review, 
1862, p. 53); Mr. Prestwich (Geol. Journal, 1860, p. 189, and 


Su le Gorilla, par Professeur Owen, avec six planches ajoutées par Eudés Deslong- 
champs. Svo. Caen, 1861, 
7 woe. cit. p. 6. 


BLAKE—ON THRE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 23h 


Philos. Transact. 1860, p. 277); Dr. Falconer (Geol. Journal, 1860, 
ps.99); Dr. Schauffhausen (Nat. Hist. Review, 1861, p. 155) ; Mr. 
Busk (Nat. Hist. Review, 1861, p. 172); Mr. Lubbock (Nat. Hist. 
Review, 1861, p. 489, and N. H. Review, 1862, p. 26); and Mr. 
Dawkins (Proceedings of the Geological Society, 1862) % 

In the Map which accompanies this paper, I nave indicated the 
locality of some of the most authentic remains, the antiquity of 
which has been strongly advocated. It is not however intended to 
be conveyed that any of the remains here indicated were contem- 
poraneous. The contemporaneity of some of them with the extinct 
mammalia is hitherto undemonstrated. It is certainly significant 
that so many instances should occur in the extreme south-west of 
England, to which the early Britons were driven by their Saxon con- 
querors, and where the traditions of British local history and the 
Cornubian dialect still survive. The remains from the Land’s End, 
Plymouth, and Mewslade may have been those of early Britons, and 
their antiquity, unproven by any chemical or geological evidence, 
may not date further back than the period of the Saxon conquest. 

Not the least point of interest in the table on page 228, is the fact 
that in Gascony and Devonshire we have evidence of the contem- 
poraneity of the horse and the ass, both animals domesticated by 
man, with the extinct mammoths, rhinoceri, cave-lions, bears, and 
hyenas. The question then arises, whether the fossil horses and 
asses are specifically distinct from the existing, as, if identical, the 
commonly received doctrine that the horses and asses were intro- 
duced from a warmer climate must be essentially modified. It might 
be supposed, that the horses and asses of the post-pliocene might 
have been domesticated by the early pre-Gascons or pre-Devonians, 
and have possibly aided them to exterminate the elephants and 
rhinoceri. The association of human remains with those of Machai- 
rodus at Kent’s Hole is not a more remarkable fact than his asso- 
ciation with Llephas antiquus and Hippopotamus major in the Somme 
valley and in Sicily. Remains of Hippopotamus major have also been 
found in Kent’s Hole. 

Switzerland and the Kjékkenméddings, belonging to a later epoch 
in the so-called ‘“‘Stone Period,’ afford us first evidence of man’s 
faithful companion, the domestic dog; and the former locality indi- 
eates also the proof of goats and sheep, specifically indistinguishable 
from the existing species. With these in Switzerland are associated 
remains of the Bos primigenius, the Bos frontosus of Nilsson, and 
the Bos longifrons. ‘Vhe latter species was domesticated by the early 
Huropeans, and probably formed the souche primitive of our domestic 
oxen. Whether some primigenius blood may not possibly exist in 
our breeds, may be reasonably doubted; but the conclusions of Pro- 
fessor Nilsson, who derives an existing ‘breed of oxen from the Bos 


* The illustrations to this paper are taken from Professor Busk’s paper (N. H.R. 
p- 172, etc.); from Sqnier’s Monuments of the Mississippi valley ; and Maury’s ‘ In- 
digenous Races.’ I am indebted to Mr. Mackie for the use of the Muskham and Heathery 
Burn relics, and for the sketches of the Hastham and Engis skulls. 


232 THE GEOLOGIST. 


frontosus, will need further discussion before their acceptance by 
paleontologists. With these domesticated or domesticable species 
of ox, flourished in Switzerland the Bison priscus, a species which 
the most strenuous efforts of the early Europeans would not have 
rendered capable of serving as a docile, milk-producing beast. The 
musk-buffalo Bubalus (Ovibos) moschatus, which lived in glacial clay 
and drift in England contemporary with the elephant, and tichorhine 
rhinoceros, has not hitherto been found associated with the remains 
of man. . 

Morton, in his posthumous manuscripts,* said, “ Why may we not 
discover the remains of man in the tertiary deposits, in the cretace- 
ous beds, or even in the oolites ?”—a supposition which, considering 
we have not yet quite proved his existence in the post-pliocene, is as 
probable as that “ for the real origin of man we must go immeasurably 
further back from the time of the existence of man amongst the 
Mammoths, into the great Pliocene or Miocene ages.” 

When we find his remains in the tertiary or secondary strata, it 
will be time enough to discuss the question. Till then, the negative 
evidence which disproves the existence of monkeys, the ancestors 
of man on the derivative hypothesis, in any stratum below the eocene 
rocks, must check our desire to anticipate the conclusions which 
future paleontologists may arrive at, through a slow and cautious 
process of induction and observation. 

With the broad question of the antiquity of the human race the 
foregoing remarks have no necessary, or even contingent, connection. 
A higher and more satisfactory evidence than any which the geologist 
or the cranioscopist can bring to bear, is furnished us by the researches 
of those ethnologists and philologists who have most studied the affi- 
liations and relations of the most ancient languages of the globe. 
Upon the supposition that such languages as the Sanscrit, Greco- 
Latin, Teutonic, Keitic, and Lithuanian, have been derived from a 
once-primeval “ Arian”’ stock, a vast lapse of time is necessary during 
which their derivation and divergence from such parent stem took 
place. Upon the rejection of the “Arian” hypothesis,+ and the 
acceptance of the doctrine of diverse ethnic centres of linguistic 
origin, an equal or greater lapse of time is necessary during which 
such a language as the Greek could have improved by ascensive 
development from the simple utterances of a barbarous early tongue 
to the Inigh grade of philological civilization when Homer wrote. 
Such a supposition would corroborate the conclusions to which 
a priort analogy would lead the geologist; but it would leave the 
problem of the origin of the inferior non-“ Arian” races of men un- 
solved. ‘The great question of the origin of these races, whether as 
our representatives in a state of arrested moral and mental develop- 
ment; whether as the scanty remnants of inferior types which, 
called into being ages before the advent of the “ Arian” race, have 
passed the fore-ordained limit which “ species” can attain, and are 


* Usher, in Nott and Gliddon, ‘Types of Mankind,’ p. 343. 
+ ( a ‘ Antiquity of Man on the Evidence of Language.’ Trans. Ethnological 
Society, 1862. oe ‘ 


WYATT—THE DISPUTED BEADS FROM THE DRIFT, 233 


slowly succumbing befure the superior mental force of their extermi- 
nators, “the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, 
namely, the production of the higher animals, directly following ’’* 
the extirpation of the lower race; are speculations which cannot be 
solved by the inspection or measurement of any series of skulls, still 
less from so limited a number as those which I have noticed above. 

Upon a review of the above facts, it appears that we may arrive 
at the conclusions that brachycephalic skulls did not antedate doli- 
ehocephalic skulls in time, throughout the whole world; that no 
analogy exists between the distribution of brachycephalic and doli- 
chocephalic skulls of man, and the distribution of brachycephalic 
and dolichocephalic apes; that the proofs of the antiquity of the 
Neanderthal and Engis skulls are not complete, the geological and 
chemical evidence being defective; that the persistent interparietal 
bone of the Muskham skull is not a mark of the lower rank of the 
race to which it belonged; and that large supraorbital ridges are 
not per se proofs of simial affinity, or anthropic degradation. 

The above conclusions, it may be said, are purely negative. They 
are so; but it must be borne in mind that we are not entitled yet to 
lay down general affirmative conclusions. The popular adage, “ He 
knows most, who believes least,” should be more generally accepted 
amongst scientific men. A future age alone may enable us to solve 
many of the difficulties which at present beset our path, and may 
dissipate the prevailing or the proposed theories as to the recent or 
ancient antiquity of man. Till then, the constant observer of re- 
corded fact follows his track through the devious labyrinth of An- 
thropology, conscious that by a steadfast adherence to exactitude he 
may possibly succeed in throwing some small light on the nature of 
the earliest evidences of the human race. 

The question of the nature and date of anthropogenesis, like that of 
cosmogenesis, will perchance not be solved for many generations yet 
to come. 


THE DISPUTED BEADS FROM THE DRIFT. 
By James Wyatt, F.G.S. 


It is not improbable that, in the eager search for flint implements, 
some of us may underrate the importance of objects which might 
serve to throw light upon the interesting subject of the antiquity of 
the human race. Anxiety not to lose any evidence bearing upon this 
point will, doubtless, be accepted asa sufficient excuse for re-opening 
the question as to the perforated balls found in the Drift, displaying 
proofs of the workmanship of man. We have had conflicting opi- 
nions upon these objects, but I am not aware that anything decisive 
has been published. It is desirable, under such circumstances, to 


* Darwin, ‘ Origin of Species,’ 1st edition, p. 459. 
vom, ¥. yh WEL 


234 THE GEOLOGIST. 


obtain as many facts as possible, and get the question settled. My 
first acquaintance with these objects occurred about fifteen years ago ; 
for as I was uncovering some Anglo-Saxon remains in the Kempston 
Gravel-pit, near Bedford, 1 found several round stones perforated 
through; and so strongly was | impressed at the time that they were 
the personal ornaments of the ancient chieftain just exhumed, that 
I actually presented them to the Archeological Society as Saxon 
beads. Subsequent examinations of the Drift gravels, however, con- 
vinced me that the balls were of an earlier period than the Anglo- 


Hollow specimens of Coscinopora from the Gravel Drift of Bedford. 


Saxon, whether works of art or natural productions. ‘They are de- 
scribed by some naturalists to be specimens of the Chalk fossil 
named as the Coscinopora globularis ; but the great question for con- 
sideration is, how did they become perforated? The theory put forth 
by some objectors is that they were bored by an insect or worm when 
they were in their soft, primitive condition; but it 1s difficult to un- 
derstand how the most voracious insect could seize upon a perfectly 
round object and drill through it, most accurately, a thoroughly 
straight tunnel of uniform bore. I have lately examined more than 
two hundred specimens from the low gravel without finding a single 
crooked or winding bore; but on making sections of some of them I 
have seen markings which appeared to me to indicate drilling with a 
tool after the object was fossilized, rather than the gnawing of an 
insect whilst the sponge was soft. There are certain facts in connec- 
tion with these little globes to be borne in mind in the discussion of 
the question :—They are found in the Pleistocene Drift gravels and 
sands which contain the fossil bones of the extinct mammals and the 
flint implements ; and the perforation is not a natural condition of the 
sponge ; were that the case, the specimens would be uniform in that 
respect, whereas some are found entire, without the slightest hole. 
The gravel-beds of this county, as well as those of Abbeville and 
Amiens, contain them, and we know that they have been regarded 
as works of early art in France as well as England; and they are 
such perfect beads that general observers unhesitatingly (and not 
unreasonably) pronounce them to be portions of ancient necilaces. 
The learned Dr. Rigollot, who devoted great attention to the Drift, 
gave the opinion that “les petites boules avaient servi A former des 
colliers 4 Pusage des peuples sauvages :” but subsequently a strong 
objection was taken to this opinion by M. Albert Gaudry, who, in a 


CORRESPONDENCE. 235 


communication published in the Transactions of the Institute of 
France, denies that there 1s any evidence for the assertion that these 
are works of art, and he also takes exception to the name given to 
them in this country. He asserts that these fossils are found in the 
Chalk, perforated in the same manner as those specimens found in 
the Drift ; and adds that this is not surprising, because the central 
part of the sponges is generally cellular! Surely the latter assertion 
cannot be accepted as a satisfactory account of the Coseinopora. 

Under the present aspect of the question, it may be considered as not 
unworthy of discussion in these pages, and with this view it is sug- 
gested that some account of the observations of geologists well ac- 
quainted with the condition of these fossils in their natural beds in 
the chalk should be solicited, as well as of those who find them in 
their transported position in the Drift. With this view I forward 
specimens from the gravel for comparison with any which may be 
obtained from the chalk; and it will be well if a microscopic exami- 
tion of the borimgs in both kinds be made, so as to afford some 
information upon the mode in which they were drilled. I think it 
may be taken as a certainty that the Coscinopora or Orbitolina, in its 
first or living state, has no hole through it, but a small indentation, 
which may be observed in many of those in a fossil state. But on 
this point valuable information could be given by Mr. Rupert Jones, 
who is so well acquainted with the Foraminifera, if he will pardon 
my reference tohim. At all events, the perfect hole through the ball 
is not, in my opinion, a part of the natural structure of this variety 
of the Orbitolina, and the question is therefore, was it a work of sim- 
ple art of some of the earliest tribes of the human family ? 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


The so-called Beads from the Drift. 


Dear Sir,—In reply to the above inquiry respecting the small, subglobu- 
lar, perforated bodies found not unfrequently in the gravel of chalk-districts, 
and particularly noticed to occur in Bedfordshire and at St. Acheul, I have 
to state that, as everybody knows, they have been derived from the Chalk, 
in which similar fossils are abundantly found, either in the perforated con- 
dition, or solid, or with a more or less shallow hole in their substance. 
They may be found by careful search in the chalk itself, on the beaches 
under chalk-cliffs (as at Ramsgate, etc.), and in drift beds the materials of 
which have been furnished by the Chalk (in the gravels above-mentioned, 
in more limited deposits ‘of chalky drift, as at Copford, Essex, or in 
the decomposed suriace of chalk and chalk-marl along the bottom slopes of 
the North and South Downs). 

These little fossils have had several names given to them, and they have 
usually been regarded as sponges; but, in 1860, my friend Mr. W. K. 
Parker and myself were led to study them in the course of our researches 
on Foraminifera, on account of one curious little form after another coming 
under our notice from different sea-sands and fossil deposits, all of which 


236 THE GEOLOGIST. 


were related to Williamson’s Patellina on one hand, and to D’Orbigny’s 
Orbitolina on the other. These varieties we described very briefly in the 
‘Annals of Natural History’ for July, 1860 (3rd series, vol. vi.), and we 
traced a strong line of natural connection between some twelve more or 
less distinct varieties of what we termed Orbitolina concava, Lamarck, sp. 
Since then, we have again worked at this subject, with Dr. Carpenter ; 
and, having somewhat modified our opinion as to the closeness of the pre- 
sumed relationship of Patellina and Orbitolina (Tinoporus, Carpenter), 
we do not regard the Patelline as belonging to the same species as the 
Orbitoline forms—making two species instead of one. But we still are 
fully convinced that, however spongioid it may appear, the Orbitolina glo- 
bularis isa foraminifer, and a variety of O. concava, Lamarck, sp. The spe- 
cimens usually found in the chalk and other cretaceous beds are large 
individuals of this very protean species, the typical form of which is con- 
cavo-convex, or cupuliform ; whilst other varieties have flat, plano-convex, 
or even biconvex and globular shapes. The concavity of the typical variety 
becomes, in many of the globular forms, a small cavity, a hole, or even a 
neat cylindrical perforation. The last feature may be due, perhaps, to the 
Orbitolina having grown around a smooth stem of seaweed. At all events, 
such perforated specimens are natural, and as abundant in the chalk as 
those of different conformations. 

In the ‘Annals of Natural History’ above referred to, after describing 
those Orbitoline to which De Montfort’s Tinoporus baculatus is referable, 
we go on to a largish sugar-loaf form from the Upper Chalk of Ciply, Bel- 
gium, and to a smaller and globular variety in the same deposit, thus :— 
““In the same deposit are somewhat smaller and globular specimens, in 
which the granular growth of the septal edges is still greater; so that con- 
tinuous, rough, sinuous walls of division are produced, marking out irre- 
gular polygonal spaces, including one or more cells, the faces of which lie 
low down below the surface. Essentially similar septal projections con- 
stitute the limbate feature in Rotalia Beccaria, var. Schreteriana, and 
it. repanda, var. Carocolla. Similar globular Orbitoline (O. globularis, 
Phillips, sp.) are common in other cretaceous deposits. 

 Millepora? globularis, Phillips (Geol. Yorksh., pl. 1. f. 12) and Wood- 
ward (Geol. Norfolk, pl. 4. f 10-12), Tragos globularis, Reuss (Bohm. 
Kreid., p. 78, pl. 20, f. 5), Coscinopora globularis, D’Orb. (Prodrom., ii. 
p- 284), and Morris (Catal. Brit. Foss., 2nd edit., p.27), is our Orbitolina 
globularis. Michelin’s Ceriopora Avellana (Icon. Zooph, p. 208. pl. 
52. f. 13), from Sarthe, appears to us to be a large specimen of the same 
varicty. Its probably adherent habit and perforated condition are not 
inimical to this view. 

“In some of the figured specimens of O. globularis, the not unusual 
hole in the base is indicated. Occasionally individuals are perforated by 
a more or less irregular tubular cavity. The roundness of the specimens, 
and their holes and tubular cavities, appear to have suggested to the old 
Klint-folk of the Valley of the Somme, that they might be used for beads ; 
for such perforated Orbitoline are frequent in the gravel that yields the 
flint axes’ (pp. 34, 35). 

I may add, that the imperforate Orditoline occur in the gravels, just as 
much as the perforate. Also that the perforation of the non-drifted speci- 
mens in the chalk is often just as smooth and straight as if artificial; the 
interior surface is not worn, however, but consists of the natural structure 
of the organism. 

| T. Rupert JONES. 
Aprel 22, 1862. 


237 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Grotoeists’ Assocration.—May 5th, 1862.—‘ On Bone-beds—their 
occurrence in Sedimentary Deposits, and probable Origin.” By George E. 
Roberts, Esq. The author described those zones of osseous and coprolitic 
matter which occur in parallel positions nearly throughout the range of 
sedimentary strata. Commencing with the most recently deposited bone- 
beds, he described in descending stratigraphical order those of the Eocene, 
Wealden, Oolitic, Liassic, Rhetic, Carboniferous, and Silurian ages; point- 
ing out the peculiarities in the position of each, and its range through 
the British area, and its relative correspondents in Europe and elsewhere. 

The author’s conclusions were that these deposits presented the 
simple and normal life-forms of the period, unaugmented, as a rule, 
by any drift of dead fishes and crustacea from other localities or by any 
cataclysmal change or local epidemic destroying life in the seas. Bone-beds 
he regarded as representing more nearly than other deposits the actual 
population of the areas in which they occur at that period of their past 
history, and he urged that special search should be made for life-relics in or 
near to such zones ; for arock, he considered, was generally not only more 
fossiliferous and richer in the ordinary organisms of the period in the strati- 
graphical vicinity of a bone-bed, but also contained intermediate forms 
linking together past species with those which succeeded, a consequence 
of change in the water from salt to fresh, or vice versd, at the time 
of their deposition. 

The probability was that all bone-beds were deposited in. shallow water, 
swept by light currents, under geographical conditions favouring the 
multiplication of fish and crustacea in Archipelagic areas, which are ever 
seen to be crowded with marine life, and are the great feeding grounds 
of fishes. Of this we have a modern example on the cod-banks of 
Newfoundland. 

2. “On a Superficial Deposit near the Blackfriars Road.” By C. 
Evans, Esq. In this deposit, some mammalian bones and land and fresh- 
water shells of recent species have been found. The deposit consists of 
peat and woody clays, resting on a bed of gravel, and was exposed in the 
excavations for the Charing Cross Railway. 

Mancuester Frerp-Naturatists’ Socitrtry.—We have received the 
annual Report of this Society, which announces its continued prosperity 
both as to funds and members, and the general and deserved success of 
the excursions and soirées. We shall not soon forget the brilliant display 
of excellent diagrams and the large and instructive collections made by 
this Society in the Free Trade Hall on the occasion of the British Asso- 
ciation Meeting, and we should freely spare a page or two of our much- 
demanded space to notice their labours if they had given us the oppor- 
tunity of doing so. All the geology however they appear to have done 
was the picking up some Carboniferous calamite stems when the-Todmor- 
den Botanists fraternized with the Manchester Naturalists at Whiteley 
Dean. ‘So little,” says the report, ‘‘of Nature’s archeology can be 
read upon the surface near Manchester—scarcely any, indeed, except in 
the fossil herbariums of the coal-pits—that to find such relics in our path 
was peculiarly interesting.” However, if the naturalists do not do much 
geology, the Manchester geologists do—and well too, as the papers of 
Binney, Hall, Dickinson, Darbishire and others testify. 


238 THE GEOLOGIST. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


Earthquake shocks were felt at Dijon on the 17th and 18th of April last. 

Professor Lecoq, of Clermont-Ferrand, has presented to the French 
Academy of Sciences his magnificent geological map of the Puy-de-Dome, 
on which he has laboured so many years. 

The Society of Agriculture, Science, and Art, of Poligny (Jura), have 
announced that they will meet on the 22nd June and hold a sort of Con- 
gress, to which the French geologists and paleontologists are invited. 
The railway works at the foot of the Jura have traversed, near the village 
of St. Lothaire, a tertiary basin which, upon a hassic basement, supports a 
moraine exhibiting all the usual characteristics, and which, in its turn, is 
covered by a turf deposit containing bones of Hlephas primigenius, deer, 
rhinoceros, etc. In the Lias shales near by, important remains of enor- 
mous saurians have been met with; and the Poligny Society consider it 
will be very interesting for the French savants to visit these interesting 
cuttings before the completion of the works renders their investigation diff- 
cult or impossible. 

Undoubtedly geologists at the present time are trenching, in their in- 
vestigations, on the domains of the archeologist and historian ; and it is diff- 
cult to see how, in the present exciting investigations on the antiquity of 
man, such trespasses are to be avoided. Many are accidental, many are 
designed ; but without keeping their eyes well open, to the doings of the 
antiquary especially, geologists cannot arrive at proper conclusions. ‘This 
necessity must be our excuse now, as well as on many other occasions both 
past and future, for including in our pages notices of subjects not strictly 
geological. How can it be otherwise? We have traces in the Drift of 
human relics; the same in peat-beds and alluvial deposits of very great 
antiquity ; and antiquaries, as a rule, have hitherto had no idea of going 
beyond the Celtic epoch. The oldest monuments, therefore, of man’s exist- 
ence in our own and neighbouring lands are usually assigned, with no other 
warranty than their antiquity, to that race. The recorded circumstances 
under which such early relics are found are not, however, always satisfying 
to the geologist of the correctness of these assignments. Such is the case with 
the so-called Celtic boat lately found in a fiuviatile deposit during some en- 
gineering works on the Upper Rhine at Cordon. This boat is formed of a 
single trunk ofa tree, hollowed out like the canoes of savages. It measures 
about eight or nine yards long by about two yards in breadth. The wood 
of which it is composed is said to be “completely petrified or fossil ;’ and 
its place of embedment in the earth is stated as being “ under a bed of 
sand and gravel.” The local antiquaries naturally attribute this interest- 
ing relic to the Allobroges, a people of Transalpine Gaul, that in the time 
of Cesar inhabited this part of Roman Provence—and which supposition 
may be right, if the ‘‘sand and gravel” mentioned be merely recent river- 
drift. But are not the circumstances, worthy of the scrutiny of geologists ? 
We have certainly seen in the gravel at Ashford (in Kent), at Bedford, 
near Herne Bay, and other places, seams of dark coaly bits of wood which 
might be the débris of piles, huts, or boats of the men of the flint-implement 
age. Such woody seams should be searched ; and whenever ancient canoes, 
and other such decisive relics, are found in or under gravel, we think it is 
the duty of geologists to satisfy themselves and the world of what age such 


gravel is. So J.M. 


PLATE X1L 


| 
| 
| 
| 
} 
| 
} 
| 
| 
7 yf) my il 
SUD 
N NW 
| 
} 
| 
DECOMPOSING. BED OF BASALT 
Over the Giants’ Causeway, County Antrim. 
! 
) - = | 
From a Sketch by G. V. Du Noyer, F.G.S.] 
| 
S. J. Mackie, F.G.S., del 
| 
| 
| 
| 


NOTES AND QUERIES, 239° 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


Decomposine Basatt.—At page 139 we gave aview of the “ Cheese 
Grotto” of Bertrich, Baden in the Eifel, in illustration of the peculiar 
spherical condition assumed in some cases by blocks of basalt. We give, 
in Plate XII., another excellent illustration of the phenomena presented 
by decomposing basalt, from an admirable sketch taken over the ‘‘ Giants’ 
Causeway,’ in Antrim, by our talented friend and geologist, Mr.G. V. Du 
Noyer. | 

cere Retics.—I have just received intelligence of a human skeleton 
having been found in a fissure in the limestone-rocks at Kellet, in Lan- 
eashire. The skull will be transmitted to me, and, should any abnormal 
peculiarities present themselves, will be described in the ‘ Geologist.’— 

May 26, 1862. CHARLES CarteR Brake. 

Mammatian Rematns.—Remains of Elephas primigenius have been 
found nine feet deep in ferruginous sand, at Demblans (Jura), in the rail- 
way-works Besancon and Bourg. These relics have been placed in the 
Museum at Lons-le-Saulnier. 

Microscopic ORGANISMS IN THE Patmozotc Rocks or New York. 
—At Professor Dana’s suggestion, Dr. M. C. White, well known for his 
devotion to the microscope, has examined various specimens of the horn- 
stone nodules found in the Devonian and Silurian rocks of New York, 
and this research has been rewarded by the discovery of abundant organ- 
isms referable to the Desmidiz, besides a few Diatomacez, numerous 
spicula of sponges, and also fragments of the teeth of Gasteropods. Among 
the Desmids, there is a large variety of forms of Xanthidia supposed to be 
the Sporangia of Desmids, besides an occasional duplicated Desmid ; also 
lines of cells, some of which appear to be sparingly branched. The re- 
searches have been mostly confined to the hornstone of the Corniferous 


Microscopic organisms from Palzeozoic rocks of New York. 


limestone; though extended also to the hornstone from the Black River 
limestone and that of the Sub-Carboniferous limestone of Illinois, both of 
which contain some organisms. 

The hornstone nodules from the Black River limestone (as well as the 
Corniferous) have been since examined also by Mr. F. H. Bradley with 
similar results. 

These observations will be regarded with much interest by geologists as 
well as by microscopists. hey carry back to a very early epoch forms of 
life which have hitherto been looked upon as belonging only to a much 
more recent era in the life of our planet. 

The analogy of these hornstone nodules to the flints of the chalk is 
obvious ; and the discoveries here announced may be regarded as esta- 
blishing their similarity in origin. The organisms figured so closely re- 
semble those of the flint that they might be taken for them; it is difficult 
in all cases to make out a difference of species. 


240 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The extreme abundance of the hornstone nodules in the paleozoic lime- 
stones of America will render it easy to our Transatlantic contemporaries 
to multiply observations in this new field of research, which presents an 
interesting addition to the labours of the microscopist, while English geo- 
locists should at once examine the siliceous concretions which occur in our 
British rocks of older than cretaceous age. It will be remembered by 
those who undertake such examinations that the use of turpentine renders 
the chips of chert almost as transparent as glass. 

In ‘Silliman’s Journal’ for May, Dr. White publishes descriptions with 
figures of some of the more frequently recurring forms hitherto observed 
by him; some of which figures we copy here for the benefit of our readers, 
referring those who are specially interested in the subject to our first-class 
contemporary, the ‘American Journal of Science,’ for further details. 


REVIEW. 


Monographie des Gastéropodes et des Céphalopodes des Couches Crétacées 
Supérieures du Limbourg. By M. Binkhorst. 


We recently noticed (page 79) an excellent Monograph by this geologist 
on the Gasteropoda of the Upper Chalk of Limbourg ; since then we are 
indebted to M. Binkhorst for a copy of his valuable Monograph of the 
Cephalopoda of the same geological beds, ulustrated by six handsome 
quarto plates, containing ninety-one figures. The letter-press consists 
entirely of descriptions, lists of synonyms, and stratigraphical ranges of 
the following species, which are met with in that district :—Belemnitella 
mucronata, D’Orb.; Acanthoteuthis Maestrichtensis, n.s.; Nautilus de- 
pressus, 0.8.3; N. Heberti, n.s.; N. Vaelsensis, n.s.; N. Lehardu, n.s. ; 
NV. Danicus, Schlot.; Rhyncholithus Debeyi, Miller; R. minimus, n.s.; 
R.? Ruchii, Miller; Ammonites pedernalis, Buch.; A. colligatus, n.s. ; 
A. Decheni, n.s.; A. exilis, n.s.; A. pungens, u.s.; A. laticlavus?, 
Sharpe ; Aptyehus rugosus, Sharpe; Hamites rotundus, Sowerby?; H. 
eylindraceus, D’Orb.; Scaphites constrictus, D’Orb.; Baculites Faujasi, 
Lamarck; B. anceps, Lamarck ; B. carinatus, n. 8. 

We are very glad to know that M. Binkhorst is busily preparing a 
Monograph of the bivalves of these interesting beds of Chalk, and that 
every day his researches are rewarded with new forms, not only of 
Conchifera but of Gasteropods. 

Within the last few weeks he has added no less than thirty new species 
of the latter, to the number described in his Monograph, a list of which 
was given in our February number. 

Rich as this Maestricht Chalk is in genera and species, we are satisfied 
that the ‘* Chalk-rock” beds of ourown Upper Cretaceous Series would 
as richly reward English collectors as we are glad to find these Maestricht 
beds are rewarding our indefatigable and talented Flemish contemporary. 


[bsg ‘tekon ud “A ‘4 Aq yooxyS B Wor] 


“yuogn oD ‘AemueuunNd®$ ,, JepInog peyote ,, 


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7) 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


JULY 1862. 


ON THE EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL ACTION OVER THE 
SOUTH OF IRELAND DURING THE DRIFT PERIOD; 
AND OF A SUBSEQUENT SLIGHT ELEVATION FOL- 
LOWED BY A DEPRESSION OF THE LAND, TO ITS 
PRESENT LEVEL. 


By Grorce V. Du Noyer, Esq., M.RB.1.A. 


Wuen “the waters were divided from the waters” and they were called 
“ seas,” the level at which they were allowed to rest, being determined, 
has ever since remained immutably fixed. With the land, however, it 
is very different; its elevation above the sea, and consequent outline, 


| 4 
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: = 


. vv 
Ney oe SESS 


Ss 
STARS NSE 3 
< V4 a Wh, GSD 
SES OLA SSSS r 


a 
SPE 2S oe OS 


Rigcd. View, looking west, of the perched boulder of limestone, called ‘ Cloughvorra,”’ 
south side of Kenmare valley, half a mile south of Roughty Bridge. To the right 
is LS es bridge over the sound at Kenmare; in the distance the mountains 
near Sheen. 


WO: Vs nage 


242 THE GEOLOGIST. 


has varied from the very moment it “appeared” or in other words 
arose from beneath the “waters,” and each successive geological era 
comprised within itself countless changes in this relative distribution 
of Land and Water, and many marked variations in the climatal 
agencies effecting the one, and in the tides and currents which sorted 
the shingle, sands, and finer sediments formed by the other. If proof 
of the truth of this be required we have but to pause before any bed 
of conglomerate, in any strata from the lowest to the most recent, 
and we have there presented to us a clear evidence of a period of 
local destruction in rocks previously formed and consolidated, and a 
consequent reproduction out of their disintegrated masses ; but should 
we find in that conglomerate a block of a still older conglomerate, 
and this, on examination, was found to contain pebbles derived from 
ancient fossiliferous rocks in which we discover the remains of shells 
and corals, we clearly see that the process of formation, consolida- 
tion, destruction and reproduction has been going on during count- 
less ages before the formation of the conglomerate we first examined. 
In vain we try to shape each link of this apparently endless chain of 
past cause and effect and effect and cause, till our imaginings are lost 
in what has aptly been termed “ the past eternity.” 

That the earth has been subjected to marked climatal changes 
during past geological times is proved by its fossils. Beds of coal 
similar in every respect to those found in Europe and containing 
what we believe to be tropical plants, are found in what is now the 
Arctic Regions, $.E. of Melville Island, and we have evidence to show 
that similar changes of climate obtained long before the Carboni- 
ferous period, as Upper Silurian rocks are found at the N.W. ex- 
tremity of Baffin’s Bay. 

In the study of geology there is this great truth, which the 
inquirer must never lose sight of, that the sea is the great superficial 
laboratory of the earth; the true Lethe in which is plunged the 
newly-made soul of matter, wherein it loses as it were the conscious- 
ness of its past state of being. The sea, ever destroying, ever creating, 
is a type of the Great First Cause, and the only permanent and un- 
alterable constituent of matter. 

The laws determining the physical changes which modify the 
outline and condition of the solid portion of the globe hold good up 
to the present hour; and though these changes are so gradual that 
the short space of human record is capable of pointing out only 
their most trivial results, yet in the lapse of cycles of ages, altera- 


DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 243 


tions will be wrought by the sea at the surface, and by the earthquake 
power beneath the crust of the globe, far beyond the most visionary 
flights of imagination ever indulged in by the most accomplished 
philosopher of nature. 

The last great geological event of which we can detect the traces 
over the British Islands, was their gradual upheaval from beneath 
the sea; before that period, which comparatively speaking 1s a very 
recent one, we know not how often our islands and Western Europe 
had been submerged and elevated, or what were the outlines of the 
land at these different post-Tertiary periods ; neither can we fix the 
particular time when the Chalk of the South of England and the 
North-west of France was cut through to form the Straits of Dover, 
or the Basalt of the county of Antrim and the west coast of Scotland 
divided by the Irish Channel. We have however every reason to 
believe that what are now the British Islands formed a portion 
ef the European Continent before the creation and distribution of 
the existing Flora; and doubtless during the lifetime of the 
elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyena, bear, etc., whose bones are 
found in our caves as well as in those of the Continent. While from 
recent discoveries it is possible that Man even may have been co- 
existent with these now extinct animals. 

The traces left by the sea during the period of the last upheaval 
of the land, are generally understood by the term “ Drift,” and 
they are such as to lead to the belief that ice floating over the 
sea and glaciers formmg in the mountain gorges were the chief 
agencies of destruction, while the former, aided by tides and currents, 
caused the transportation of rock masses over wide-spread areas. 

The presence of icebergs being once admitted, we must infer that 
the temperature of the sea was much lower in these latitudes then 
than now, and at the cessation of this period of upheaval the climatal 
conditions must have closely approached to those of the Arctic zone; 
our mountain glens were occupied by glaciers for a very long period 
indeed, as is proved by the extensive moraines now to be seen at their 
mouths, and the grooving and polishing of the rocks along their sides. 
~ The last great current of the glacial sea certainly flowed from N. 
and N.W.toS. and 8.E.; this is chiefly demonstrated by the occur- 
rence of large boulders of peculiar rocks scattered on the surface to 
the southwards of where they are recognized in situ. 

By studying the contour of the loftiest mountains in the South 
of Ireland, such as Carrantuohill—the highest, 3414 feet above the 


244: THE GEOLOGIST. 


sea; the Reeks of Macgillicuddy, 8000 feet ; some of the mountains 
to the west of the Reeks, such as Caher, 3200 feet; with Brandon 
Mount, 3121 feet; and Benoskee Mount, 2713 feet—both in the 
Dingle Promontory ; we must be struck with the singular fact, that 
up to an elevation of 2400 feet they are all rounded and covered with 
water-worn blocks, while above that level they are more or less peaked, 
and their surfaces rugged and bristling with the coarsest angular 
débris and massive rock-fiakes, evidently the result of long-continued 
atmospheric action; to this there is one exception in Mangerton 
Mount, which is 2715 feet in elevation, whose summit is completely 
rounded,—a fact which we may account for by supposing it to be the 
result of some local depression of this part of the mountain chain 
during the period of the “ Drift”’ action, or a subsequent upheaval 
after its cessation. 

From this peculiarity in the outline of the mountains we may 
suppose that before the last great upheaval, and at the commence- 
ment of our last or glacial “ Drift” period, the land over the South 
of Ireland lay submerged to the depth of about 2400 feet,—thus 
forming a group of islands, the highest of which was the Peak 
of Carrantuohill,—having shoal-water extending from them in the 
direction of N.E. and 8S.W., the present longest axis of the moun- 
tain chains, and deep channels between them, which are now our 
valleys. Over this sea great masses of ice floated, and carried blocks 
of rock to the 8S. and 8.E. from what is now the Galway mountains, 
and possibly other mountain chains, which lay in what is now the 
Atlantic, and scattered them over the islands. As the land arose 
gradually from the waters, its shores and shoals frequently arrested 
the travelling iceberg ; these, on grounding and melting, deposited the 
blocks attached to them; or, on being again floated off by tides, 
currents, and storms, carried with them any rocks which might have 
become attached to them or have fallen on them from any cliff at the 
base of which they had been temporarily arrested in their course to 
the southwards. 

At an elevation of over 2200 feet above the sea, in a remarkable 
hollow at the northern summit of Mangerton Mount, there now lies 
the lake ealled “The Devil’s Punch-Bowl;” along its northern side 
its waters are dammed up by a mound of very coarse subangular 
detritus of local grits and sandstones, having a height of 2319 feet 
above the sea, or 119 feet above the level of the lake. On the sum- 
mit of this well-marked mound there are many large angular perched 


DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 245 


boulders poised one over the other, and these could only have been 
placed in their present position by having been slowly dropped from 
an iceberg as it melted from the heat of summer. Had such a piling 
of angular blocks occurred under water and within reach of any float- 
ing mass of ice, it would have been thrown down by the first con- 
cussion. 

As the land still slowly emerged from the sea, the disintegrated 
materials from its shores becaine more or less sorted by the action 
of the tides and currents, and arranged in certain localities most fa- 
vourable for their reception. Thus, the low ground which extends 
from Killarney to Millstreet, lying at the northern base of the 
mountains commencing at Carrantuohill and Skreaghmore on the 
west, and including the Reeks, Mangerton, Stoompa, Crohane, the 
Paps, and ending in the range of the Caherbarnagh mountains on 
the east, is covered by a thick accumulation of well-rounded, coarse 
Boulder- Drift, all derived from the rocks of the neighbouring moun- 
tain chains; being, in fact, the sweepings of the sea from out their 
various valleys and gorges. Although this. Drift is spread out on 
the Carboniferous limestone which extends along the flanks of the 
mountains, it is quite free from any fragments of that rock—a fact 
which aids in determining the origin of the deposit. The highest 
elevation to which this Drift reaches up the flanks of the mountains 
at Mangerton is about 600 feet; and in the neighbourhood of Kil- 
larney, along the road to Muckross, this deposit is escarped to the 
depth of 300 feet. 

One of the most clear and unmistakable examples of an erratic 
ice-borne block, or perched boulder, is to be seen near Kenmare, in the 
county of Kerry, on the hillside about half a mile to the south of 
Roughty Bridge (Hig. 1, p. 241). It consists of a large and nearly 
rectangular block of grey, thin-bedded, cherty limestone, formed of 
a series of beds which have come away from the main mass along 
two sets or joint planes, which cut each other nearly at right angles. 
This boulder is known by the name “Cloughvorra;’’ it measures 
26 feet from north to south, 16 feet from east to west, and is now 
about 15 feet to its highest point above the ground. This remark- 
able block rests directly on purple grits and slates of the Old Red 
Sandstone, the beds of which dip to the N.N.W. at 60°. The ele- 
vation of “Cloughvorra”’ above the sea is 260 feet, while no lime- 
stone in the valley of the Roughty river reaches a greater elevation 
than 200 feet, and the average height of the limestone in the valley 


24.6 THE GEOLOGIST. 


along the northern base of the hills, on which this boulder rests, is 
not more than 100 feet.* 

Over the whole of the Killarney district, the range of the Reeks, 
-Torck mountain,the mountains between Killarney Lakes and Kenmare, 
and between Kenmare and Glengariff, wherever rock surfaces are ex- 
posed freshly or denuded of the Drift, they are more or less rounded 
and polished, and bear the marks of glacial striz. This is very appa- 
rent over the rocky bosses in the Upper Lake district of Killarney, 
at an elevation of about 96 feet above the sea; and the striz are ob- 
served up the western side of Torck mountain to a height of over 600 
feet, where they appear to have been produced by the impinging of ice- 
masses against this flank of the mountain on their passage from the 
glen of the upper lake to the west, and before they were deflected to 
the northwards through the gorge between Torck mountain and the 
“ Hagle’s Nest”? mountain, into what was comparatively the open sea 
lying to the northward. 

Many rounded and striated rock-surfaces are to be seen at a 
height of 1000 feet above the sea in this district, the strie having a 
general direction of N.W. and S.E., being frequently thin at the end 
pointing to the former, and blunt at that turned to the latter point 
of the compass. If we suppose that the force which produced these 
scratches was exerted from the N.W. to the S.E., and its motion to 
have been one of sudden starts or bumps, we should expect that marks 
having the peculiar form of those observed would be the result. 

In such glens and gorges as the Gap of Dunloe, and what is now 
the bed of the Upper Lake at Killarney, the glacial striz are invariably 
parallel to the longest axis of the valley, as we would expect if they 
had been produced by the passage of large masses of ice, or, as in the 
Gap of Dunloe, by the movements of a glacier. In the former there- 
fore the direction of the striz is N. and S., and in the valley of the 
latter EH. and W. 

At the lower or northern end of the Gap of Dunloe there is a very 
remarkable deposit of Drift; it consists of three lunet-shaped 
mounds, formed of local sand, gravel, and boulders, extending across 
the mouth of the glen. The two outer mounds measure- fully one 
mile in length from east to west, by about 100 yards in width; and 
they are all cut through near their centre by the River Loe. As this 
mass of Drift extends for the distance of fully one mile from the ab- 
solute base of the mountains, and the entrance to the Gap, we may 


* See “ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland,’ p. 184. 


DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 247 


suppose that its origin is twofold: first, attributable to the sea-cur- 
rent, and then that of the river which flowed out of this glen, and of 
which it is the delta; and secondly, of the glacier, which eventually 
blocked up this mountain gorge, when the land had been sufficiently 
elevated and the climate favourable for the formation of such pheno- 
mena. 

The innermost semicircular mound is, therefore, most probably 
the true moraine of the glacier; it measures 700 yards in length by 
about 150 yards in width; its height above the sea in its central 
part where it is bisected by the River Loe being 224 feet, and where 
it is escarped by the stream to the depth of 85 feet, without the rock 
being exposed. 

As the climate became less and less favourable for its formation, 
the glacier lessened in width and receded, and the rubbish brought 
down by it also decreased in amount, and it appears that the glacier 
ceased to be formed when its termination rested at a height of 800 
feet above the sea, as its débris is found at that height on the north- 
ern flank of Tomics Rock. 

Throughout the entire extent of the Gap of Dunloe many of the 
rock-bosses along the precipitous flanks of Purple Mountain, and at 
the end of the Reeks on the western side of the gorge are rounded and 
striated, the striz being all parallel to the length of the Gap, or about 
N. and S$. 

Over many rock-surfaces along the shores at the head of Glen- 
gariff Bay, the glacial strie are well developed within a few yards 
of the sea-level. This is important, as it proves that the temperature 
of the sea and climate was Arctic after the country had assumed its 

present physicai features. 

On the northern flanks of the Tralee range of mountains, which ter- 
minate in the summit of Caherconree, and at the mouths of the Glens 
of Bartugaum and Derrymore there are exceedingly well-marked small 
moraines, cut through by the streams which issue from these glens, 
and which escarp them to the depth of from 30 to 50 feet. 

Glacial strie are observed in both these gorges, and in many 
places the Old Red Sandstone rocks are polished, rounded, and fur- 
rowed in the direction of the length of the glens, or N. and S. 

The moraines are merely single semicircular mounds, measuring 
nearly half a mile from end to end, where they rest on the flank of 
the mountain, and having a width of fully a quarter of a mile. 

Over the rocky promontory in the county of Cork, formed by Dun- 


248 THE GEOLOGIST. 


manus Bay on the north and Roaring-water Bay on the south, 
terminating in Mizen Head, the glacial strie are very generally 
to be observed, their usual direction being W.N.W. and ES.E. 
Some of the finest examples of glacial furrowing and polishing in the 
whole South of Ireland appear on the east shoulder of Mount Ga- 
briel, at an elevation of close on 1000 feet above the sea in the gap 
where the road to Skull from Bantry passes; the groovings, which 
are some of them more than 18 inches in depth, mark the preci- 
pitous face of the hill with polished, architectural-looking flutings 
and mouldings. It is very probable that glacial scratches occur on 
the very summit of the mountain, which is 1339 feet above the sea. 

Bosses of rock, beautifully rounded and polished by glacial action 
are exposed over all the district around Ballydehob and Skull; and 
at the mouths of the rocky glens there the remains of the moraines 
are distinctly to be seen. 

On the northern flank of the Comeragh mountains, in the county 


aN WNINS 
WN \ \\ 


No 9 Sq ql ta ct Pe : 3 : 
Mig. 2. Old Red Sandstone, cleaved, and exhibiting horizontal glacial strie. 
Dunmanway, Co. Cork. 


is a narrow rocky glen facing to the N.W., which is the most 
clear example of the bed of an ancient glacier that I know of in 
the South of Ireland. The mouth of this glen is blocked up bya 


series of the most perfect moraines, now cut through by the small 
stream issuing from the gorge. 


PLATE XIV. 


fountain in the distance, 


N 


1a 


ke, with Owt 


ROCK” and La 


“ SHIP-- 


ar} 


Cor 


(Grey 


Duanmanway, 


V 


by G. 


7 
at 


crete 


Mackie, 


DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 249 


The extreme measurement of the moraines would be about half a 
mile from east to west, with a width in their central part of about a 
quarter of a mile. In many places the rocks in this glen are beauti- 
fully polished, rounded, furrowed, and striated. 

To the spectator standing on the mountain-side to the 8.E. of this 
glen, and looking down on it, the view is most striking, and the 
imagination need not be very vivid to complete the picture by the ad- 
dition of the glacier with the snow-covered mountains beyond. 

Over the wide mountainous promontory formed by the Bay of 
Kenmare on the nerth, and Bantry Bay on the south, all the rock 
surfaces where freshly exposed from beneath either bog or Drift, are 
more more or less rounded and striated; in some glens these striz 
are observed at the height of 1100 feet above the sea, the direction 
varying from N. and 8. to N.W. and S.E., and sometimes from N.N.E. 
to 8.8. W. 

The mountains to the north and west of Dunmanway in the county 
Cork afford some very striking evidences of glacial action. Most of 
the rock surfaces being observed to be polished and scratched in the 
direction of N.N.W. and 8.8.E., the striz being thin at the former 
and blunt to the latter point of the compass. The highest elevation 
at which [ have observed these glacial marks in this district is 975 
feet, and the lowest 200 feet above the sea, thus proving that during 
the whole period required to elevate the ground 775 feet, or the 
difference between 975 and 200 feet, the conditions of the sea and 
climate were permanent and favourable to the formation and drifting 
of ice masses. 

Over the summit of Coolsnaghtig Hill, which is; close to Dunman- 
way and 975 feet above the sea, and at its eastern end, called Mount 
Gunnery, 757 feet high, the glacial striz are remarkably well de- 
veloped, and many perched boulders are scattered over both moun- 
tains; one large block, called “‘ Maragh,” is close to the very summit 
of the latter hill. All the blunt edges of the sandstone rocks over 
both these mountains when presented to the N.N.W. are rounded 
and striated, the vertical faces of the beds being marked with hori- 
zontal striz. Over the whole of the Dunmanway district there are 
very many perched boulders, and some of them of enormous size; one, 
called “ White Horse Rock,” is close to the village, and there are seve- 
ral others near to it. The largest erratic block occurs at the distance 
of three miles to the westward of Dunmanway, in a hollow on the west- 
ern flank of the mountains over Ship Lough; it is called “Ship Rock” 


VoL. V. 2K 


250 THE GEOLOGIST. 


(Pl. XIII.), and there is a superstition that on All-Hallow Eve this 
mass floats off into the lake, returning to its present resting-place ere 
cockcrow. This remarkable block consists of a seriesof purple grits, and 
thin purple earthy layers, and now measured roughly 1s 40 x 25 x 16 
feet, representing a bulk of about 16,000 cubic feet, and weighing 
about 1100 to 1200 tons. Originally this mass was much larger, 
as large flakes have fallen off its sides from the result of atmospheric 
action. 

On the Carboniferous slate district to the 8.W. of Dunmanway, at 
the summit, marked 964 feet to the west of Millane Hill, there is a 
perched boulder of hard light grey gritty slate, measuring 6 x 43 x 2} 
feet, which is known to the peasantry by the name of “ Gallaun Keogh.” 
To the north of Dunmanway in the Townland of Gurtanure, and at 
the junction of the Caha with the Bandon River, a rocky boss affords 
some very interesting examples of “roches moutonnées”’ and glacial 
strie. Here we find purple grits weathering into smali pinnacles on 
the lines of the dip, the cleavage and the cross joints, the sides and 
angles of which are rounded and polished and marked with well- 
defined horizontal striz. On the level polished surfaces of rock, we 
find the same peculiarity of form in the scratches as before noticed. 
They are fine at the end pointing to the N.N.W., and blunt at that 
pointing to the S.S.E., thus clearly indicating the direction from 
which the current came which floated the ice-masses forming them. 
The horizontal markings have not however this peculiarity, but area 
series of fine groovings and sharp scratches. 

Over the Carboniferous slate to the south of Dunmanway the 
compass bearing of the glacial strie is generally the same as that 
over the Old Red Sandstone, and the mountainous district to the 
north. This is very well seen in the horizontal and smooth rock 
surfaces to the north of Ballinacarriga Lough, at an elevation of 339 
feet, where the strie run N. 20 W. and S. 20 E., the thin end of the 
scratches being presented to the former point. 

The accompanying illustration of a perched boulder from near 
Dunmanway (Pl. XIV.) is interesting in many respects; it shows 
how readily the sandstone yielded on the planes of the slaty cleavage 
to what must have been the sudden concussion of an iceberg ground- 
ing on such a submerged inequality in the sea bottom as this rocky 
boss must have been. The view is taken looking somewhat to the 
westward. The general form of the rock when it was submerged in 
the glacial sea must have been very nearly the same as now, one side 


DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 251 


sloping to the northwards, having the southern face of the boss preci- 
pitous. The current sent the iceberg up the inclined plane facing to 
the northwards, till the shoaling of the water arrested its further 
progress. The sudden concussion thus given to the rock detached 
from off its precipitous brow facing to the southwards large flakes 
of rock, and threw them one on top of the other down the inclined talus 
at the base, just as a lot of books would lie if suddenly thrown down 
on their sides from a previously close and vertical position. It is 
highly probable that the iceberg here permanently grounded and 
melted away, leaving the perched boulder which we now see on the 
summit of the rock as the most palpable evidence of its short-lived 
existence.* 

Erratic boulders of a syenitic granite, a rock peculiar to the county 
Galway, lie scattered over the country to the 8. and 8.E. of it, com- 
prised in the counties of Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary, and some 
of them are to be seen as far south as the deer-park of Mallow 
Castle, county Cork. Hence we have a clue to the direction of at 
least the last iceberg current. 

Many Drift boulders may be considered as local, and are due to 
the action of shore ice, which dropped them before they had been 
transported far from their parent site. Of this fact we have an ex- 
ample in a large block of a very peculiar kind of light grey cherty 
limestone, with thin earthy shale layers through it, which rests in a 
field close to the Workhouse of Mallow. It now les on the coal 
measures to the south of the outcrop of the limestone, and similar 
limestone is observed in setw is in the deer-park of Mallow Castle, 
about two miles distant from the bouldér, and near the base of the 
Old Red Sandstone hills. 

The Musheramore range of mountains, lying between Macroom 
and Millstreet, have Drift gravelly clay resting on their southern sides 
to the height of 2050 feet above the sea, as is apparent on the southern 
slope of Mullaghanish Mountain. The southern slopes of Lacka- 
baun Mountain, up to an elevation of 1500 feet, are dotted over with 
numerous large angular boulders of purple slates and grits. On the 
southern slope of Lackabooma Mountain, at a height of 1270 feet 
above the sea, numerous large angular blocks of hard greenish grit 
are scattered about. And thick accumulations of gravel and boulders 
occur, at elevations of 1000 feet, in the various glens and river valleys 
along the southern slope of the mountains to the N.E. of Macroom. 


* See ‘ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland,’ explanation to sheet 193. 


252 THE GEOLOGIST. 


It is somewhat remarkable, that over this district many rocky emi- 
nences and ridges, which do not attain to an elevation of much more 
than 1060 feet, are quite free from the Drift, which in some localities 
reaches a height of 2000 feet and over it. Such, for example, is the 
case at the Hill of Carrignaspirroge, to the west of Macroom, and to 
the north of the head of the Bardinch River. Without doubt this 
deposit once covered all the hills of this range, up to their very 
highest summits; but some local currents must have subsequently 
removed it while the district was being slowly raised above the level 
of the sea. 

In the northern portion of the county of Tipperary there are some 
fine examples of glacial action and perched boulders. 

Mr. Wynne, of the Geological Survey of Ireland, in his explana- 
tion to sheet 135 of the Geological Map, affords us some very valuable 
information on this point. 

He remarks that Limestone Drift was recognized at considerable 
elevations on the northern slopes of the hills about Killanafinch. 
Large blocks of granite occur south of Toomeyvara, which have been 
transported from the county Galway. 

Along the high ground which rises south of Moneygall large 
boulders of limestone are scattered over the hills, especially about 
Busherstown, where they attain to a height of 500 feet above the 
sea. On the top of Loyer Hill, south of Moneygall, at a height of 
about 890 feet above the sea, a large block of limestone occupies a 
very conspicuous position ; it measures 12 feet x 9 x 7%, and it rests 
on Lower Silurian rocks. 

On the summit of the well-known mountain called the Devil’s Bit, 
near Templemore, and ata height of 1583 feet above the sea, Mr. 
Wynne discovered glacial strie and erratic blocks of Silurian grit 
on the surface of the Old Red Sandstone; the direction of the striz 
is from N.N.W. to S.8.E. 

The occurrence of glacial striae at this great elevation affords fur- 
ther evidence of the enormous lapse of time during which the South 
of Ireland lay submerged beneath the glacial sea during the last 
Pleistocene period; such scratches and groovings on rock surfaces 
were produced beneath comparatively shallow water, and the total 
amount of elevaticn of the land during this glacial period is thus de- 
fined with tolerable certainty. 

The facts just detailed may be regarded as the most important and 


obvious of those relating to the evidence of aa action over the 
South of Lreland. 


DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 258 


The last fact in the history of the recent elevations and depressions 
of the land, is the occurrence of submarine bog along the south and 
south-east coast of Ireland. From the position in which this bog is 
found, it is evident that the coast-line as it now appears had been 
Jirst formed, and that an elevation, sudden or gradual, took place, 
sufficiently great to lay dry the shores now under the sea for a dis- 
tance seaward from the cliffs, sufficient to allow of the formation of 
marshes and lagoons, which after the lapse of ages became covered by 
a dense forest ; but how far this forest tract extended from the an- 
cient coast-line it is impossible to say ; eventually, this forest decayed 
and bog was formed. The land then subsided, till, strange to say, it 
regained the exact level at which it stood before the existence of the 
bog, and the sea once more beat against its former cliffs and soon 
covered up the peat at their bases with sand and silt as we now 
find it. 

The most southern locality where this submerged peat is observed 
is at Tralong Bay, a little rocky indentation on the coast, two miles 
to the south-west of Rosscarbery Creek ; the bog lies close against 
the cliff, and is well exposed at low water. In Ross Creek, to the 
east of Rosscarbery, the bog at low water is denuded by the country 
people of the slob which covers it, and is cut and dried for fuel. 
Beech and hazel nuts, with small branches of these trees, are fre- 
quently found in the peat. To the east of this, at the head of Clo- 
nakilly Bay and Dunworly Creek, a similar deposit of bog is observed 
at low water. The same fact is noticed at the head of Courtmarshery 
Bay. From this place, following the coast to the N.E., we pass the 
entrance to Cork Harbour, and when we reach Ballycotten Bay, a 
distance of thirty-five miles, the submerged bog is again apparent 
close to the shore. Atthe head of Youghal Harbour it is again seen. 
lt also occurs to the north of Ardmon Head, and has lately been 
described by the Rev. Professor Haughton, F.T.C.D., as present in 
Dungarvan Bay. Still following the coast, we find it at the head of 
Tramore Bay ; and it appears up the mouth of Waterford estuary as 
far as Duncannon, a distance of eight or nine miles from the main 
coast-line. 

The occurrence of this submarine bog in a well defined estuary so 
far inland is very interesting, as it proves that the creek was first 
formed, and therefore we may argue that the general coast-line 
had its present outlines before the growth of the timber required 
to make this bog. In Bannow Bay there is a similar formation, and it 
again is seen in Wexford Harbour. 


254. THE GEOLOGIST. 


The coast-line now strikes nearly north and south, and is no longer 
indented by deep bays with jutting headlands, yet still we find that 
the submerged peat is present. I have heard it asserted that the 
anchor brings up peat off the coast to the north of Cahore Point, in 
the county Wexford, and I know this to be the fact to the south of 
Dalkey Island, and between that place and Bray. 

The distance along the coast from Tralong Bay and Rosscarbery 
on the south to Dalkey on the north-east, over which the submerged 
peat has been observed, is fully 195 miles; and I have little doubt 
that along the south-west coast, to the west of Rosscarbery, com- 
prising Roaringwater Bay, Dunmann’s Bay, Bantry Bay, Kenmare 
Bay, Dingle Bay, and Tralee Bay, all these deep indentations were 
during the formation of this peat, either entirely or partially dry land, 
and covered with a luxuriant forest, which likewise formed a deposit 
layer of peat similar to that just noticed; and if we do not find 
traces of it at these places, the fact is due to the destructive action 
of the Atlantic on such an exposed coast, and the consequent removal 
of the peaty matter. 

Until we have some information as to the distance from the 
coast-line and the extreme depth beneath the sea at which this bog 
terminates, we cannot speculate on the probable amount of elevation 
and depression to which the south and south-east of Ireland was 
subjected during the growth and deposition of this remarkable for- 
mation. It need not however have been very great; two or three 
hundred feet of elevation would now, even, cause a wonderful varia- 
tion in the coast-line, and leave bare a wide belt of level land around 
it; and if the climate was more genial than at present, and other 
circumstances were favourable, we must suppose that it would be co- 
vered with forest after the lapse of ages. All that would be required 
is Zime, and, from all that we can understand, Nature is most lavish 


of this necessary aid to the production of even her latest geological 
works. 


ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 


By Proresson Wiiram Kine, 
(Queen’s College, Galway,) Queen's University in Ireland. 


It would be an insult to reason to deny the power of the Omni- 
potent to create at once plants and animals out of inorganic or any 


- KING—ON. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 255 


kind of matter: on the other hand, it would be equally irrational to 
doubt His power to ordain and sustain laws, through the instru- 
mentality of which originally created organisms could be modified and 
adapted to external changes. The two modes may be designated,— 
the first, Autotheogeny,—and the second, Genetheonomy. 

I hold that an organism, whether it typifies a species, a genus, a 
family, an order, or a class, is an autotheogen, if it possesses a set of 
characters which isolate it from other equivalent groups; also, that 
such an organism, through being acted on by inherent and external 
forces, may become more or less modified, thereby resulting in gene- 
theonomous forms. I see no reason why Mr. Darwin should not 
admit the same, notwithstanding that his present belief merely re- 
cognizes among animals “at most only four or five’? autotheogenous 
roots of apparently as many classes. On psychological grounds alone, 
Man must be regarded as isolated from all other organisms; hence 
I consider him to be an autotheogenous species. 

Until within the last year or two, Genetheonomy was far from sufh- 
ciently supported by the arguments of its advocates; those advanced 
by Lamarck, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and the author of the ‘ Vestiges,’ 
being only of partial application, or simply illustrated by a restricted 
group of analogies. If organisms underwent changes only during 
their embryonic stage, the author of the ‘ Vestiges’ would have some 
grounds for his theory of development “by generation”—by “a 
universal gestation of nature, analogous to that of the individual 
being ;”’ but, considering that all organisms undergo, after their birth, 
and throughout the entire period of their existence, successive modi- 
fications (less marked, it is true, in the higher Vertebrata than in 
the Invertebrata and Batrachia), it is manifest that the doctrine of 
the ‘ Vestiges’ has nothing in its favour except a restricted group of 
analogical phenomena. Its author has made outa case of “ parity of 
plan between embryonic development and the succession of life on 
our planet;” but he has failed, as far as I can understand the theory, 
in establishing “a real identity of character in the two sets of pheno- 
mena.’ Of late, however, Darwin and Wallace have considerably 
enlarged the field of well-sustained argument supportive of creation 
by Divine law. 

But does the hypothesis of the last-named naturalists sufficiently 
explain the various genetheonomous phenomena? My own reason- 
ing compels me to answer in the negative. I admit to a great extent 
the power of “natural selection”’ in producing a species; but I can- 
not divest myself of the impression that it only holds the rank of a 
subordinate or ancillary agent. The particular view under consider- 
ation, if | am not much mistaken, implies that plants and animals 
are modifiable by mere external influences—of course, acting by law. 
Entertaining this opinion, I am led to regard “ natural selection,” as 
widely removed from primary laws; and functionally no higher 
than chance or accident, as conceived by the untutored. 

I feel a difficulty in understanding how “natural selection’ could 
produce a species, unless other and higher principles were involved. 


256 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Every individual plant and animal is confessedly acted on by forces, 
the precise nature of which has never yet been revealed by science. 
Some conception may be formed of one, paramount in my mind, by 
designating it progressive change. A principle of this kind appears 
to me to be inherent in animated nature; or, how can we otherwise 
explain the “ unity of plan” pervading both organic kingdoms,—the 
“ phenomena of parthenogenesis,’—the “advance and progress in the 
main’’ which our life system has undergone in past geological ages ? 

There is no difficulty in referring instances which cannot be recon- 
ciled with “an advance and a progress in the main;” but these are 
obviously exceptional. I cannot agree with Mr. Darwin in his view 
of the “ geological record ’’—of its being so “imperfect” as he seems 
to think. Many important connecting links, binding in close union 
all the members of our life-system, are undoubtedly wanting ; but, in 
taking a general survey of the facts revealed by marine paleontology, 
commencing with the earliest organic period, and closing with the 

resent one, it 1s to me a matter of surprise, considering how limited 
is the field of observation, that the “geological record’’ is so per- 
fect. There is apparently some difficulty in accounting for the 
occurrence of so many invertebrate orders—low as well as high—in 
Cambrian rocks; but we must not overlook the fact that such groups 
mow include forms of the simplest type, doubtful even as to their 
ordinal rank ; nor must we overlook the probability of the primordial 
crustacea, annelids, cephalopods, palliobranchs, corals, ete., being 
more closely related to each other than is the case with their repre- 
sentatives of later geological periods. 

The supremacy of progressive change may be exemplified by re- 
ferring to the successive modifications which the human organism 
passes through in its progress towards maturity ; while the ancillary 
or subordinate character of ‘“ natural selection ”’ is well illustrated by 
the changes which external agencies have effected on the same or- 
ganism, producing, as admitted by nearly all, the leading varieties of 
the human species. 

With respect to the varieties of man, I hold that most of them are 
genetheonomous degradations of the Indo-Caucasian type, developed 
by the physical conditions peculiar to the regions they respectively 
inhabit. Cogent reasons may be advanced for regarding the American 
Indian as having descended from the Mongolian, and the latter from 
the Indo-Caucasian. Even the aboriginals of Australia may be looked 
upon as another degraded race: those inhabiting the south and west 
coasts are confessedly inferior to the adjacent oceanic tribes, as they 
appear to be incapable of constructing canoes. From some remarks 
recently made by Professor Jukes, one might be led to attribute this 
mark of inferiority to the apparent absence in Australia of indigenous 
timber suitable for canoes (vide ‘ Atheneum,’ No. 1793). I believe, 
however, a more general cause has operated,—one involving physical 
conditions. Nevertheless, I certainly prefer accepting the particular 
circumstance stated, as one of the means which have brought about 
the degradation of the Australian, to adopting the view which con- 


CORRESPONDENCE. 257 


siders him to be an advanced genetheonom of some extinct ape, even 
should the remains of species be found hereafter more human-like 
and more manipulative than the gorilla or chimpanzee. 

Iam disposed to regard, then, progressive change as one of the 
great primary modifying principles of organic nature; and “ natural 
selection”’ as a secondary one,—the latter subordinately operating 
in the production of proximately allied specific and varietal forms. 

Some years ago I contributed a few facts, which showed that varia- 
tions of physical conditions, as depth of water and nature of sea- 
bottom, induced in certain British shells modifications of form equal 
to differences prevailing between many species of mollusca;* in a 
paper published a year or two previously, I particularly noticed the 
remarkable, and, in many cases, imperceptible gradations of generic 
characters running through the tetrabranchiate Cephalopods;+ and 
in my “ Monograph,” I have pointed out the various forms assumed 
by Camarophoria Schlothevmi, and some other Permian fossils. These 
may be taken as evidences that I have not been inattentive to the 
vexed question of species. Of course, it would ill become any one 
to dogmatize on such a subject, and disbelieve in the future turning- 
up of facts subversive of his preconceived notions; nevertheless, I 
feel myself bound to declare, that all my observations and reasoning 
incline me to believe in the two modes of creation as herein ad- 
vanced. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Professor King’s Stratigraphical Tables. 


Sir,—The Table of British Rocks, by Professor King, given in the last 
number of the ‘ Geologist’ (pp. 193-7), I cannot let pass without saying, 
that however perfect it may be as regards those Irish rocks amongst 
which the Professor teaches, it is not as useful as might be to a student 
in the South-east of England. 

Its many imperfections will be seen on comparing it with the table 
given in Lyell’s ‘ Elements,’ with those of a more detailed kind scattered 
through the lately-published edition of Jukes’s ‘Manual,’ or with the 
Index of Colours of the Geological Survey. The following are amongst 
oe ye striking mistakes (in the Lower Tertiary and the Secondary 
LOCKS) :— 

1. The Upper and Lower Bagshot Beds are not noticed, only the Middle 
Bagshot (Barton and Bracklesham) being given. The Woolwich and 
Reading Beds are also left out, although the Thanet Sand (of less impor- 
tance) is given. 

2. The Lower Greensand, save its lowest bed (the somewhat local 
Atherfield Clay), has escaped notice. 

3. The Kimmeridge Clay, the Coral Rag (with its associated beds 


* See Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vols. xvili. and xix. 
+ See zbzd., vol. xiv. 
VoL. V. 2 1 


258 THE GEOLOGIST. 


of Calcareous Grit), the Cornbrash and Forest Marble, and the Fullers’ 
Earth, and Inferior Oolite are all left out. 

I could point out many other mistakes ; but I think that the above are 
enough to show that Professor King’s Table needs to be a little more 
‘“ vevised and corrected” before it can be said to be “up to the present 
time.” I would however remark that the good notion of giving separate 
columns for marine and freshwater types is in great measure marred 
by the formations in one column being printed on the same line with those 
in the other, as if they were exactly of the same age; whereas such is not 
always the case. Thus, the Eocene Series (in which, by the way, the 
main divisions of Upper, Middle, and Lower are not given) should stand 
as follows,—classing the Hempstezd Beds with it, and not with the 


Miocene :— 


| Marine Types. Fresh- and Brackish-water Types. 
Upper Hocene.. f Parts of the Fluvio-marine series of Hempstesd Bed Fiuvio-marine 
ne {the Isle of Wight . « .. ©» 45 | DOmbNGHe Beds sy uesoidhe 

| Soa ca tender Reda Isle of Wight. 


Upper Bagshot Sand 
Middle Barton Clay Bagshot 
Pagshot \ Bracklesham Beds Beds. 
4 - Lower Bagshot Sand 
ower Eocene.| London Clay. Boleie 5 
Woolwich and Reading Beds (part of) . ana oi eae ie a 
Thanet Sand. eer 


In this form the table shows, at a glance, that there are no purely 
marine formations of Upper Eocene age in Britain; but that there are 
beds of that age that are mainly of freshwater origin, etc. 

I am, yours truly, 


= Wie We 


The Trinidad Pitch Lakes. 


Srtr,—I observe in a paper “On the Torbane Mineral Field,” by Mr. 
Taylor, in the February number of the ‘ Geologist,’ a statement to the 
effect that the Pitch Lake of Trinidad stands in close proximity to a vol- 
cano. As this statement has been repeated in various works, and has ap- 
parently led to some false generalizations, it may perhaps be well to make 
the true state of the case a little better known. 

No volcanic substances or erupted rocks have been found to exist near 
the Pitch Lake; and not only is there no voleano in Trinidad, but, so far 
as [ am aware, no traces have been discovered either of ancient or of re- 
cent volcanos in the island. What may perhaps have-given rise to the 
statement above alluded to, is the existence of several so-called mud vol- 
canos, or salses, which eject only mud and water, and do not possess a 
temperature above that of the air, and certainly do not appear to have any 
connection with what is usually understood by voleanic action. The neigh- 
bouring parts of South America are equally free from evidences of volcanic 
disturbance. 

What I have stated may suffice to call attention to the subject ; and for 
details, including an excellent and lucid account of the bituminous deposits 
in Trinidad and their probable origin, I would beg to refer those desirous 
of knowing more on the subject to the “Report on the Geology of Tri- 


CORRESPONDENCE. 259 


nidad,” being Part I. of the West Indian Survey. The salses above-men- 
tioned are also described in this most useful work. 
Believe me, Sir, 
Your most obedient servant, 
B. LecHMERE Guppy. 
Port of Spain, Trinidad, April 2, 1862. 


Archeology and Geology. 


Dear S1r,—Three articles in the ‘Geologist’ of June, 1862, have so far 
interested me as to induce a few remarks, if I do not obtrude upon your 
space, viz. that of J. Wyatt, Hsq., F.G.S., that of T. R. Jones, Esq., 
F.G.S., and that of your foreign correspondent, 8. J. M. The two former 
discuss the orbitolina; the latter writes on the trenching of geologists in 
their investigations on the domains of the archeologist and the historian. 
The illustrations given by J. Wyatt, Esq., F.G.8., coincide exactly with 
specimens in my collection which I have obtained from the Chalk in dif- 
ferent localities of this Island. My specimens include varieties which 
range in a graduated scale from the orbitolina, with a small indentation, to 
those with a perfect and natural hole, smoothly perforating these forami- 
nifera, without the intervention of artificial boring. In addition to these 
geological specimens, I possess also antiquarian specimens of the orbitolina, 
obtained from tumuli or barrows examined by me—indeed, one at least, 
was obtained from among the beads of a necklace found upon an Angio- 
Saxon skeleton, which convinced me that it had been strung as a bead 
among those of amber, glass, and terra-cotta, which ornamented the per- 
son of our exhumed ancestor. There can be little doubt that these ancient 
people appropriated both natural as well as artificial perforated objects for 
their personal adornment. From the same barrow from which I obtained 
my perforated orbitolina, I procured a naturally-perforated pebble, and 
an artificially-perforated lump of lead, while the amber beads consisted of 
natural lumps of unshaped amber, simply perforated for suspension. S. 
J. M. gives ample reasons which prove that the geologist, if he trenches 
upon the domains of the antiquarian, does not do so without much advan- 
tage to the latter, especially in these days of Drift discoveries, which, by 
the bye, have carried the antiquarian back to a human period of which he 
formerly had no conception. It is to be hoped that the geologist and the 
antiquarian may pursue these interesting modern discoveries in a spirit of 
wholesome rivalry, inasmuch as their so doig will conduce much to the 
elucidation of an obscure period, both historically and geologically. 

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 


Ernest P. Wixxins, F.G:S. 
Newport, Isle of Wight. 


Mammalia from Maceagnone Cave. 


Sir,—In the table professing to show ‘‘the association of the earliest 
evidences of the human race with remains of extinct and recent Mam- 
malia,”’ p. 228 of the June number of the ‘Geologist,’ I observe that the 
following species are attributed to the Grotto of Maccagnone, in Sicily, for 
the original description of the contents of which I am responsible :—1. Felis 


260 THE GEOLOGIST. 


spelea; 2. Ursus speleus; 3. Hyena spelea; 4. Bos primigenius; 5. 
Hippopotamus major; 6. Cervus megaceros : making six out of the 
eight species assigned to Maccagnone. : 

These six identifications are simply imaginary ; not one of the species, so 
far as | am aware, having been as yet mentioned on authority, as occurring 
in the Grotto of Maccagnone. ath 

Such a wholesale manufacture of species, in a case of such gravity, 
requires no comment. 

Your obedient servant, 
London, June 23, 1862. H. Fanconer. 


Discovery of a Human Skeleton and other Remains in the bed of the 
River Soar, at Leicester. 


On the western side of the town of Leicester there is an old bridge, 
known as the ‘‘ Bow Bridge.” It has recently been taken down for recon- 
struction ; during the progress of the work the stream has been stopped, 
and a dam thrown across the channel north and south of the bridge, 
leaving the bed of the river dry. The upper surface was a black, muddy, 
alluvial deposit, but this being penetrated, the pure Drift gravel presented 
itself. This gravel lies immediately on the abraded surface of the Upper 
Keuper Sandstone, which here dips away under the town towards the 
Liassic hills on the eastern side. In excavating on the east side of the 
old bridge for the new foundations, and digging in the bed of the river, the 
workmen came upon ground in the Drift of a mixed character, gravel and silt. 
After digging out three feet of this, they came upon a human skeleton 
lying face upwards, the knees drawn towards the head. It was nearly 
entire, a few of the vertebra and the smaller bones of the hands and feet 
only are wanting. Near this skeleton were found the skull of a horse, ox 
horns, and other bones. 

The old bridge is of some antiquity, and is supposed to have been 
erected in the twelfth century. The road to which it leads is the Via Vici- 
nalis of the old Roman town of Rate, and leads to the “ Home Way,” 
another Roman road near Leicester. Over this bridge Richard the Third 
rode to the field of Bosworth, and his body is said to have been thrown 
over the bridge into the river by the multitude. Be this as it may, the 
navvies and common people firmly believe this skeleton to be the remains 
of that monarch; but as Richard’s body was “hacked to pieces,” and his 
age at his death was about thirty-five, and as the bones bear no appear- 
ance of being “hacked,” and the last molar being still in its socket, no 
weight can be given to such an impression. Certainly Richard the Third 
had cut his “wisdom teeth.’ 


: JAMES PLANT. 
Ydrd June, 1862. 


These remains have been transmitted to us for inspection. It is a young, and 
seemingly not adult, woman’s skeletoun.—Ep. Grot, 


261 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Mancuester Grotocicat Socizty.—April 29.—1. “On the Geology 
of the Railway between Hyde and Marple.” The length of the line is 
seven miles, and some of the sections are as much as sixty feet in depth. 
Tt trends in a direction nearly coincident with the line of strike of the 
rocks. The country through which it passes undulates very much, so that 
the line in places crosses, at a height of more than a hundred feet, valleys 
worn out by denudations, probably, the author thinks, at the close of the 
Pleistocene age, as Drift-beds cap their summits. The geology of the 
railway may be set down as belonging to two widely-separated forma- 
tions—the Lower Coal Measures and the Pleistocene. 

Going along the line from Hyde, about two miles from the town, a 
thin-bedded argillaceous sandstone rises, overlying beds of shale. No 
organic remains have been found init. The dip is on the right-hand side, 
in a direction nearly N.W., and at an angle of 10 or 15 degrees. JIron- 
stone bands, several inches in thickness, frequently alternate with the 
shales, and along the whole length of the line these beds are not lost sight 
of. Towards Marple they have been affected by dislocations, and about 
a quarter of a mile beyond the aqueduct a downthrow fault of several feet 
is seen. Near Romilly the gullets are deeper, and the shale-beds are suc- 
ceeded by those ripple-marked flag-stones. Over these beds lie masses of 
sandstone rock of coarser texture, containing imperfect impressions of 
Calamites and Sigillarie. Two miles further on this rock is succeeded by 
one of a conglomerate character, and very hard,—the matrix being of a 
light grey colour, the imbedded pebbles red. 

Near Hyde, where the shales first come to view, they contain fragments 
of Lepidodendra and Neuropteris, with numbers of Spirorbis carbonarius 
and Cyprides, in company with several species of Anthracosia: the whole 
so commingled as to show they shared a common habitat. 

The Anthracosia found in the ironstone bands are interesting, from the 
fact that numbers show the interior of the valves, and consequently expose 
the hinge—a feature which is valuable in settling the various opinions 
maintained as to the habits of these mollusca. In tracing these apparently 
freshwater shales towards Marple, we find a change towards marine con- 
ditions, Goniatites, Avicula-pectens, etc. being mixed up with the Anthra- 
cosia. 

This fact, the author considers, goes to prove that the Unio or Anthra- 
cosia, formerly regarded as a freshwater shell, was in reality a marine one 
that lived in shallow and brackish waters. 

The Drift deposits which overlie the Carboniferous beds above described, 
are of the general character. Not much Till is met with until the aqueduct 
at Marple is crossed, where these beds contain huge boulders of porphyry, 
granite, syenite, ete. The boulders are generally rounded; the larger 
ones being scratched and striated. In a section about two miles from 
Hyde the Drift beds are cut through to a depth of thirty feet, and consist of 
beds of sand and clay alternating with each other, and containing marine 
shales, Tellina, Cardium edule, Turritella, Terebra, and Astarte. The 
author considers these beds are a continuation of the fossiliferous sands on 
the Stockport and Woodley Line, formerly described by him. 

Rich beds of calcareous marl, sometimes several feet in thickness, are 
sometimes seen capping the Drift deposits. 

2. “On the North Staffordshire Corn Field.” By Mr. John Bradbury, 
jun. The strata of this field were minutely detailed, and a section given, 
with their measured thicknesses. 

3. “On an improved Safety-Cage for Miners.” By Mr. T. Farrimond. 


262 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Royat Institution.—WMarch 7.—‘‘ On the Distribution of Northern 
Plants.”” By Professor D. Oliver. The discourse referred primarily to 
the botanical evidence bearing upon the hypothesis advanced by Pro- 
fessors Unger* and Heery of an Atlantic communication between Europe 
and America at some period of the Tertiary epoch. The close analogy 
which is to be traced between the Miocene Flora of Central Europe and the 
existing Flora of the Eastern American States, these authors conceive can 
only be explained by assuming such direct overland connection of the two 
Continents. 

The speaker explained the basis upon which comparisons between two 
recent floras and between a recent and a fossil flora should rest, referring 
to the peculiar conditions which affect the latter comparison owing to the 
imperfect and partial character of the fossil element. The general cha- 
racter of the Tertiary Flora of Central Europe was described. In the 
Tertiary beds of Switzerland, according to Professor Heer{ about 800 
species of Phanerogamia have been discovered, referable to 197 genera 
(exclusive of Phyllites, Carpolithes, etc.), of which number 154 still exist. 
Of these genera— 


76 are common to the Swiss Tertiary, 


and to the present flora of . . Europe. 
ee : : ; ; é . Japan. 
Skee A : : : : . Ditto, States, America. 
1205 : : : : : . Europe and Asia (taken toge- 


ther, and including Japan). 


It is to be noted that the 77 of Japan include 26 not occurring in 
Europe: amongst them several forms highly characteristic of the Tertiary, 
as Glyptostrobus, numerous Fici, coriaceous-leaved oaks and Lauraceae, 
Juglandee, Liquidambar, ete. 

The genera, common to the Swiss Tertiary and the United States, which 
are not found also in the Old World are Sabal, Taxodium, Bumelia, Lirio- 
dendron, Ceanothus, Ptelea, and Carya. But in respect to these 7 it was 
observed that at least 5 were very doubtful determinations. The 9 largest 
orders of the ‘Flora Tertiaria Helvetie’ are Leguminose, Amentacee, 
Cyperacee, Proteacee, Lawraceea, Graminee, Conifere, Composite, and 
Aceracee. Of these Orders 3 are included in the 9 largest of Europe, 4 
in the 9 largest of the United States, and 6 in the 9 largest of Japan, 
while the remaining 3 of the Tertiary, not included in the 9 largest 
orders of Japan, are much more largely developed in Japan than in 
the United States. They are Lauraceae, Aceracee, and Proteacee. 

The proportion of ligneous to herbaceous species in the above floras 
was alluded to. Heer estimates ligneous plants to have formed about 66 
per cent. of the Phanerogamic vegetation of the Tertiary in Switzerland. 
The speaker considered this estimate as too high, believing that sufficient 
allowance had not been made for the advantages that ligneous plants, 
Which are often tall-stemmed, possess over herbaceous species in securing 
access of their leaves and débris to the waters in which they had been 
floated, and ultimately preserved. He admitted, however, that hgneous 
species were relatively very numerous in the vegetation of the Tertiary 
period. The proportion of ligneous plants he estimates in the existing 
flora of Japan at near 40 per cent., in the Southern States 22, Northern 
States 18, Europe 9 to 12. 


* “Die versunkene Insel Atlantis.’ + ‘ Flora Tertiaria Helvetiz.’ 
~ The Tertiary data were throughout derived from the ‘ Flora Tertiaria Helvetire’ of 
Professor Heer. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 263 


The intimate relationship traceable between the Tertiary and Japanese 
floras in the numerous characteristic types common to both; the issue of 
the ordinal and generic comparisons given above; the larger proportion 
of ligneous species in the Japanese than in the Eastern American flora ; 
and the number of types peculiar, at the present day, to Hastern America 
and Kastern Asia, compared with the few restricted to Europe and 
America, the speaker contends, favour the view advanced by Professor 
Asa Gray in reference to plants and by Mr. Darwin as to animals, viz. 
That the migration of forms to which is due the community of types 
in the Eastern States of North America and the Miocene of Europe, took 
place to the North of the Pacific; an overland communication, it may 
be supposed, having existed during the Tertiary time somewhere about 
Behring’s Straits or the line of the Aleutian Islands. This view is 
confirmed by the occurrence of Miocene vegetable remains in North-west 
America (including genera yet growing in Japan but lost to America), 
which prove, further, the temperature of these latitudes to have been 
at that time sufficiently high to have permitted their existence so far 
north. 

The evidence in favour of the ‘Atlantis’ might, moreover, be expected 
to have been more marked in the existing vegetation of the Atlantic 
Islands than is the case. Professor Heer points out the genera Clethra, 
Bystropogon, Cedronella, and Oreodaphne as common to the Atlantic 
Islands and America. Japanese species, however, have been described of 
Clethra and Cedronella ; and Messrs. Webb and Berthelot limit Bystro- 
pogon to Atlantic Island species. Oveodaphne occurs in South Africa 
and adjacent islands. 

A connection between these Islands and Europe, at perhaps a late 
period of the Tertiary, may be considered as highly probable from the 
predominance of Mediterranean forms in their flora. The few genera 
characteristic of the Tertiary which they possess may have been derived 
during this connection ; but the hypothesis that a continent should have 
extended westward as far as America, the speaker considered the available 
botanical evidence did not in the least substantiate. 

Royat Instirvtion oF Great Britain.— May 23.—‘ On Coal.” By 
Warington W. Smyth, Esq., F.R.S. The speaker selected one portion 
only of this large subject; and, neglecting chemical and statistical and 
mining particulars with reference to this important mineral, confined him- 
self to the physical conditions under which it is found to occur. 

Mr. Smyth described the nature of the various substances with which 
the coal is associated ; and comparison was made between the total thick- 
ness of carboniferous rocks or coal-measures of different districts, as well 
as between the total thickness of coal (in the aggregate of the seams) ; 
hence we have one reason for not estimating the value of a coal-field merely 
by its area, as laid down in a geological map. ‘Thus, the well-known Dur- 
ham field, with a thickness of measures of about 2000 feet, has a total 
thickness of coal of 50 feet; the Derbyshire, 2000, and almost twice the 
thickness of coal; the North Staffordshire, 6000 feet of measures, and 130 
of coal; whilst the South Welsh and Saarbricken fields exhibit thicknesses 
of 12,000 to 15,000 feet, with a proportionate increase, especially in the 
latter, of coal. A second reason for mistrusting area as a criterion of the 
importance of a coal-district, is the various forms into which the coal-mea- 
sures have been thrown or moulded by agencies operating at a later date 
in the earth’s crust, whence some districts may exhibit by outcrops an in- 
dication of the full amount of their entire contents, whilst in others the 
beds pass with a gradual inclination beneath newer formations, through 


264 THE GEOLOGIST. 


which they may nevertheless by sinkings be accessible, as in the case of 
the vast accession of mineral wealth added, in the last twelve years, to the 
Westphalian coal-field, by the explorations carried through the covering 
of eretaceous rocks which clothe the northern side of the coal-field. The 
remarkable pit lately completed by the Duke of Newcastle, at Shireoak, 
was another example. At a distance of several miles from any visible 
coal-measures, it had pierced the New Red Sandstone and Magnesian 
Limestone, and reached the “ top-hard” coal at 515 yards in depth. 

Referring to the principal families of plants which are found either in, 
or associated with, the coal, he endeavoured to show that their occurrence 
throws a light on the origin of the coal-seams, a knowledge which becomes 
an important guide in enabling us to judge of the continuity of some fields. 
The position of the stigmaria in the under-clay or floor of the seam, and of 
the stems of sigillaria, lepidodendron, calamites, etc., in the roof strata, 
point to the probability of the growth of the vegetable matter in situ. 
The existence of numerous upright stems, and especially those occurring 
so often and so dangerously to the miners in the roof of certain coals, is a 
strong confirmation of the gradual depression of the tract in which these 
plants grew; and Goppert has shown that the careful examination of a 
number of seams proves the existence in the coal itself of every family of 
plant which has been met with in the coal-measures. 

Thus much had referred to the true Carboniferous period, in which it is 
commonly supposed that a vigorous vegetation first arose, but the speaker 
described his finding, a few months since, in the Laxey lead and copper 
mine, in the Isle of Man, at 120 fathoms deep, a seam of anthracite coal, 
three to four inches thick, in the midst of ancient schists, probably Lower 
Silurian. He then noticed the coaly and lignitic beds in newer formations, 
especially the Tertiary ‘‘ brown-coal,” which in Continental, and especially 
in Southern Europe, attains to great importance. The excellent preserva- 
tion of the vegetable remains in the lignite has enabled Professors Unger 
and Heer to make comparison with existing floras; and these authors show 
that the Tertiary flora had nothing in common with our present flora in 
Europe, but had an extraordinary resemblance to that of modern North 
America. This was especialiy to be noticed in closely similar species of 
the genera Liquidambar, Liriodendron, Pavia, Nyssa, Robinia, Taxo- 
dium, Sequoia, Juglans, Glycyrrhiza, Cercis, Laurus, Rhododendron, 
Cissus, and certain oaks and pines. There was hence, the speaker thought, 
no retreating from the conclusion, that at that portion of the Tertiary pe- 
riod a land communication existed between America and Europe. Frag- 
ments of that land, with relics of the same Tertiary flora, he considered 
still existed in Iceland and the Azores, with their surturbrand and lignites ; 
and thus the existence of that Atlantis, which is generally set down as a 
dream of the poets, was, according to his views, supported by the studies of 
the geologist. A relation of this kind at a comparatively recent pericd, 
throws a light on the causes of phenomena belonging to an earlier epoch, 
and enabled the forming of conclusions, if not upon the absolute contem- 
poraneity of certain beds or groups of coal-measures, at all events upon 
the physical connection within a given period of the agencies which were 
oe coal not only in the various fields of Europe, but also in North 
America. 

Giascow GroLoaicat Socirry.— May 10th.—The members had an 
excursion to the hills of Greenock and to Loch Thorn. The hills, 
generally speaking, are of igneous rock; towards their front they were 
found to be principally of a fine variety of amygdaloids, containing nodules 
of erystallized quartz, and silicates of magnesia, with indications of zeolitic 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 265 


minerals. Near Loch Thorn the rocks become compact greenstone, and 
dark-coloured porphyry. When the excursionists arrived at the eastern 
extremity of the Loch, they came suddenly upon a fine section of the 
_* Ballagan limestones,” tilted up nearly vertical, with regular divisions 

of shales, which have lost much of their schistose character, and are regu- 
larly traversed by thin veins of calcareous spar—apparently a variety of 
satin spar. The remarkable uplifting of these strata is the effect of a trap 
dyke, visible close beside them, also a portion of an overlying sandstone 
converted into ‘“‘kinglé” (a mining term for indurated sandstone) by igneous 
action. At the opposite extremity another trap dyke appears, which ap- 
parently has effected this change in the sandstone. These sandstone 
beds are at the same angle as the other strata. The burn below exhibits 
the Old Red Sandstone zm situ, and Red Marl clays also much altered by 
igneous action, with a number of fine specimens of Red Sandstone con. 
slomerates. In going up the burn the route is over a bed of similar lime- 
stone, and the district is well worthy of future detailed examination. One 
remarkable feature of these Ballagan beds was the rounding of the vertical 
limestones, being of a flattened spherical shape, evidently the result of 
weathering and scaling off at the exposed surfaces. These Ballagan beds 
occur some miles distant at Ballagan, Campsie Hills, and arange of fine 
sections occurs at Auchenreoch Glen, Dumbarton; with this difference, 
at Loch Thorn the crystallized veins of calcareous spar are carbonate of 
lime, while at Auchenreoch and “ Ballagan” they are sulphate of lime 
(gypsum). Loch Thorn isa fine sheet of water, partly artificial and partly 
natural. Jt supplies Greenock and its works with water. 

Since the discovery of the Ballagan beds at Loch Thorn, at the time 
of the excursion, one of the members has visited the district, and having 
gone a considerable distance up the burn, reports that-other important ap- 
pearances of the Ballagan strata present themselves in very fine sections, 
and that the igneous cause of their upheaval and vertical position is exhi- 
bited lower down the burn than was suspected during the first rapid view 
taken of the strata. No doubt a more searching investigation will take 
place during the summer, and should any important facts present them- 
selves in relation to the relative position, etc., of the Ballagan beds with 
the Old Red Sandstone and coal-measures, the information will be for- 
warded to the ‘ Geologist.’ 

Royat Soctety.—19¢h June.—“< On the Loess of the Valleys of N. of 
Hrance and 8. of England.” By J. Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S. During a re- 
cent visit to France the author made observations which have enabled him 
to draw conclusions as to the formation of the Loess. In this communi- 
cation the author first refers to the Loess of the Rhine, concurring with 
Sir Charles Lyell in attributing its origin to river inundations, but draws 
different conclusions as to the mode and circumstances of its deposit. 

The greatest difficulty that has been felt in attempting to understand 
the spread of the Loess in England and France has been the great differ- 
ence of the levels at which they are found, these often being from 100 to 
300 feet above the present river-courses—heights to which no river-inun- 
dations could attain in the present valleys. But of the former existence 
of less deeply-excavated valleys in the present valley-sites, the covering of 
Loess might lead to the inference ; and notwithstanding the extension of 
the Loess over the loftier ground flanking the valleys, such areas appear 
to be always bounded by higher hills, forming a barrier restricting the limits 
of the floods. The author’s opinion is that the Loess is, like the high- and 
low-level gravels, always connected with river-valleys ; and if, instead of 
starting at the present low-levels, the ancient valleys be taken at the level 

VOL. V. 2M 


266 THE GEOLOGIST. 

the author in his former communication showed them to have had at the 
period of the high-level gravels, that is at from 100 to 200 feet above the 
floors of the present valleys, the difference of level then of the upper de- 


posits of Loess to be accounted for will be diminished to 100 or 150 feet, 


a 


a 


a 


6 b' 6" Loess; d a high-level gravel ; 
c c' low-level gravels; m, 7, 0, the levels 
to which the river rose during inundations 
at different periods. 


—a difference still considerable ; but, 
on the other hand, these extremes are 
not always attained. At all events, 
this brings the whole of the Loess 
within the possible range of inunda- 
tions of the old Pleistocene rivers at 
different periods according to their 
age; the higher beds having been de- 
posited by the overflowings in the 
earliest periods and before the exca- 
vation of the present river-valleys, 
the lower beds after the present val- 


leys had been formed, but while the 
old meteorological conditions still prevailed. These deposits of Loess thus 
furnish a measure of the volume of water anciently brought down by the 
rivers during floods, and show how very far they exceeded their present 
representatives, and how great must have been their erosive action. Flood- 
deposits will always consist of shingle in the river channels; sand in 
sheltered places; fine silt over the area where the flood waters repose. 
In this manner the author considers the high- and low-level gravels and 
the Loess of all the levels to have been formed. 

This flood-origin of the Loess being admitted, it follows that as that de- 
posit is found at 50 to 100 feet above the highest beds of gravel, the floods 
of these periods must have risen like those of the Arctic regions, but to 
even a greater extent (50 to 100 feet), above their summer levels. The 
fluviatile shells found in the gravels and Loess were stated to be identical. 

GroLocicaL Soctery or Lonpon.—April 16, 1862.—1. “On the 
Position of the Pteraspis-beds, and on the Sequence of the Strata of the 
Old Red Sandstone Series, in South Perthshire,” By Professor R. Hark- 
ness, F.R.S., F.G.S. 

At the Bridge-of-Allan the lowest beds seen of the Old Red Series are 
(1) conglomerates of trap-rocks, overlaid by (2) grey sandstone passing up- 
wards into red sandstone. These grey sandstones have afforded to Mr. 
Powrie a Pteraspis (perhaps P. rostratus), and fragments of Cephalaspis 
have also been found in them. Next above come (3) purple shales (at 
Craig Arnhall); then the brown sandstones (4) of Downe Castle; and 
lastly at Laurick, grey sandstones (5) again. hese all have a N.W. dip, 
as seen along the Teith. From about Laurick to Callander the strata are 
best seen in the Keltie burn. They have a S.E. dip, and form the other, 
but steeper, side of a synclinal trough (about twelve miles wide); and 
here grey sandstone (5), (4) brown sandstone (at Bracklin Linns), (3) 
purple shale. (2) red and grey sandstone, and lastly (1) a conglomerate 
(here composed of felstone) present an analogous succession to that be- 
tween Laurick and the Bridge-of-Allan. At Callander the conglomerate 
lies almost vertically against the metamorphic Lower Silurian rocks of the 
Grampians, trap-rock intervening. The author estimates that the Old 
Red strata have a thickness of 7000 feet. 

‘ 2. “On the Western Extremity of the London Basin ; on the Westerly 
Phinning of the Lower Eocene Beds in that Basin; and on the Grey- 
wethers.” By William Whitaker, Esq., B.A., F.G.S., of the Geol. Surv. 


Great Britain, 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. 267 


In the first part of this paper the author described certain outliers of 
Tertiary strata in the neighbourhood of Bedwin and Savernake (or Marl- 
borough) Forest, in Wiltshire, where in the course of the Geological Survey 
of the district he found that both the Woolwich and Reading beds and the 
London Clay gradually thinned out westward, until merely 3 or 4 inches 
of the latter alone remained between the Bagshot beds and the Chalk. 
Further eastward these are probably in direct apposition. The superficial 
loam and clay with unworn flints of the Chalk district along the northern 
side of the London Basin were then described. 

In the second portion of the paper it was shown, both from the published 
results of Mr. Prestwich’s researches and later observations made in the pro- 
gress of the Geological Survey, that the Thanet Sands thin out westwardly, 
from a thickness of about 85 feet in the Isle of Thanet, to about 35 feet at 
London, and to 3 feet at Chobham, disappearing altogether near Epsom. 
The Woolwich and Reading beds include the Blackheath Pebble-bed, ac- 
cording to the author: at Herne Bay Mr. Whitaker gives these beds a 
thickness of about 50 feet, at Croydon 45 feet, at New Cross 54 feet, at 
London from 40 to 70 feet, at Ealing 60 feet, at Hanwell 75 feet, at Chis- 
wick 90, at Reading about 50 feet, and near Great Bedwin, in Wiltshire, 
only 15 feet. The London Clay, with its basement-bed, is nearly 480 feet 
thick at Sheppey, 400 feet at London, 370 feet at Reading, 20 to 60 feet 
near Newbury, only 15 feet near Great Bedwin, and is represented by a 
few inches of its pebbly basement-bed in Marlborough Forest. 

The third part of the paper treated of the Greywether Stones of Wilt- 
shire, which the author believes must have come from the Bagshot Sand, 
which alone of the Tertiary beds is present there in sufficient thickness to 
yield these large and numerous masses of bedded rock. 

3. “On a Clay-deposit with Insects, Leaves, etc., near Ulverston.” By 
John Bolton, Esq. 

The deposit described in this paper was a greenish-drab clay, lying be- 
neath a capping of locally derived drift and rubble of varying thickness, 
upon the Mountain-limestones of Low Furness. It was met with during 
the progress of drainage-works undertaken by the Lindal-Cote Iron-ore 
Company. At one locality, the clay is 93 feet from the surface, and has 
a thickness of 15 feet; it seems to fill a basin in the limestone. The im- 
bedded plant- and insect-remains and its contained Diatomacee proved 
the deposit to be of lacustrine origin. Fragments of wood occurred in it, 
stained blue by phosphate of iron. It appeared probable from the depth 
at which the clay was buried beneath locally derived material, upon a com- 
paratively level surface, that it was of great antiquity, though possibly 
younger than the glacial epoch. | 

May 7th, 1862.—The following communications were read :— 

1. “ Note respecting the Discovery of a new and large Labyrinthodont 
(Loxomma Allmani, Huxley) in the Gilmerton Iron-stone of the Edin- 
burgh Coal-field.” By Professor T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., Sec. G.S. 

Looking over the vertebrate fossils from Burdie House and Gilmerton 
in the University Museum, Edinburgh, Professor Huxley came upon 
some reptihan specimens—a fragment of the hinder part of the upper 
wall of a cranium and some sternal plates of a Labyrinthodont, which, 
from the obliquity of its orbits, he names Loromma. The skull would be 
about 14 inches long if perfect ; and the animal about 6 or 7 feet. 

2. “ Note on a new Labyrinthodont (Pholidogaster pisciformis, Huxley) 
from the Edinburgh Coal-field.” By Professor T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. 

‘The specimen on which this new form has been determined was placed 
in the British Museum by Sir P. Egerton and Lord Enniskillen, who 


268 THE GEOLOGIST. 


recognized it as Reptilian. Mr. Davis, of the British Museum, drew Mr. 
Huxley’s attention to it as being probably Archegosaurian. It is not 
well preserved, but on careful study proves to be an amphibian allied 
to Archegosaurus ; differing, however, from it in the form of the head, 
the extent to which the ossification of the vertebral column has pro- 
ceeded, and in the character of the dermal armour. This animal was 
about 44 inches long. . 

3. “On the Land Flora of the Devonian Period m North-eastern 
America.” By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., E.G.S. 

First noticing what was formerly known of the Devonian Plant-remains 
in the States of New York and Pennsylvania (Hall, Vanuxem, and 
Rogers), in Gaspé (Logan), in New Brunswick and Maine (Gesner, Robb, 
Bennett, Hartt, Matthew, and Hitchcock), the author stated that with 
Messrs. Hartt, Matthew, and others at St. John’s, he had lately examined 
the productive localities near that city, and is now enabled to add largely 
to the aecount of the Devonian plants he had already published in the 
‘Canadian Naturalist,’ vol. vi. 1861. He now enumerates about 70 
species (32 genera) of plants as occurring in the Upper Devonian of 
Pennsylvania, New Brunswick, Maine, New York, and Gaspé, in the 
Middle Devonian of New York and Gaspé, and in the Lower Devonian 
of Gaspé. Of these 70 species, two (Psilophyton princeps and Cordaites 
angustifolia) are referred also to the Upper Silurian of Gaspé; and 10 
(not including these two) reappear in the Carboniferous strata. The 
Devonian Flora much resembles in general facies that of the Carboniferous 
period. In the Lower Devonian series the underclays are filled with the 
rhizomes of Psilophyton, in the Upper Devonian with Sigillarie and 
Calamites (as in the Coal-measures). The Devonian Flora is less per- 
fectly preserved than that of the Coal-measures, and is probably as yet 
very imperfectly known; it presents more resemblance to the floras of the 
Mesozoic period and of modern tropical and austral islands than the Coal- 
plants present. The facies of the Devonian flora in North America 
is very similar to that of the same period in Europe. 

Among the Devonian plants of North-east America, Dr. Dawson 
recognizes an angiospermous dicotyledon (Syringoxylon mirabile, nov. gen. 
et sp.), established on a fragment of fossil wood collected by Professor 
James Hall from a limestone of the Upper Hamilton Group, at Highteen- 
mile Creek on Lake Erie. 

4. “On some Upper Eocene Fossils from the Isle of Wight.” By 
Professor Dr. F’. Sandberger. In a Letter to W. J. Hamilton, Esq., For. 
Sec. G.S. 

The result of Professor Sandberger’s examination of a collection 
of these fossils, carefully named by Mr. F. KE. Edwards and forwarded by 
Mr. Hamilton, has been to confirm him in his opinion that the upper 
beds at Hempstead, Isle of Wight, are the exact equivalent of the marine 
beds at Weinheim, Jeurres, and Bergh (Reupélien inférieur, of Dumont). 
The freshwater hmestone of Bembridge and Sconce appears to correspond 
to the beds at Buxweilar (Alsace) and Abstadt (Baden); and the fossils 
from Headon Hill and Colwell Bay probably belong to the level of 
Dumont’s Zongrien imferieur (Lethen and Westergeln) ef supérieur 
(Marnes supérieur au gypse). 

May 2\.—The following communications were read :— 

1. * On the Metamorphic Rocks of the Banffshire Coast, the Scarabins, 
and a portion of Hast Sutherland.” By Professor R. Harkness, F.R.S., 
I.G.8. The coast-section from Gamrie to Buckie was first described ; it 
consists mainly of folded gneiss and grauwacke sandstone and shale, with 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 269 
underlying quartz-rock of great thickness, conformable, and folded with 
it, and seen in anticlinals at Melrose, Banff, and Dunidich, and still more 
in an arch between Cullen and Buckie. Two folds of limestone, obscurely 
stratified and not persistent, occur with the schists at the Burn of Boyne 
and Dunidich. The dykes of syenite, of granite, and of serpentine (Port- 
soy) were also pointed out in this section, as well as two outliers of the 
Old Red deposits at Dunidich and Cullen. The metamorphic rocks above 
mentioned have a predominating south-east dip, and the folds hang over 
to the north-west; but the author regards these strata as holding a re- 
versed position, the gneissose and grauwacke strata being really the upper- 
most of the series, as in other parts of the North of Scotland. The sec- 
tion from the sea at Berridale, across the Scarabins to Strath-Naver, was 
next described. Here the granite of Bean-na-aiglesh succeeds to the Old 
Red Sandstone of Berridale, and is succeeded by the gneiss and folded 
white quartz-rock of the Scarabins. From the Scarabins to Strath-Naver 
granite and gneiss alternate in laminar masses, dipping south-east towards 
the Scarabins, here and there bearing unconformable outliers of Old Red 
Sandstone. In this case also the author pointed out that a reversed dip 
obtained, by which the really uppermost gneissose rock was made to ap- 
pear lower in position than the quartzite. Professor Harkness further al- 
luded to the conformability of the granite with the strata in this district, 
and to the probability of its being rather the result of an excessive amount 
of metamorphic action than of plutonic origin. 

2. “On the Geology of the Gold-fields of Nova Scotia.” By the Rev. 
David Honeyman. (Communicated by the President.) The author, at the 
request of the Provincial Government Commission for the International 
Exhibition, made some observations on the auriferous rocks at Allen’s and 
Laidlow’s farms, near the junction of the Halifaxand Windsor and the 
Halifax and Truro railways. He found chloritic schist, with vertical auri- 
ferous quartz-veins, and a gold-bearing horizontal quartz-vein (the “ bar- 
rels” of the miners) lying on the schist and overlaid by quartzite and 
gravel. By the neighbouring railway sections the chlorite-schist is seen to 
alternate in broad bands with quartzite, and to be associated with granite. 
Phe author thinks there is reason to believe that the quartzite may be of 
Lower Silurian age. 

3. “On some Fossil Crustacea from the Coal-measures and Devonian 
Rocks of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton.” By J. W. 
Salter, Esq., F.G.S., of the Geol. Surv. Great Britain. One of the Devo- 
nian fossils is apparently allied to the Stomapods, and is named Amphipel- 
tis paradorus by Mr. Salter; it was obtaimed by Dr. Dawson near St. 
John’s, where it occurred with plant-remains; another Crustacean fossil 
from the same locality is a new Hurypterus, H. pulicaris. Other remains of 
Eurypteri have been sent also by Dr. Dawson, from the coal-measures of 
Port Hood and the Joggins; and with thesea new Amphipod, Diplostylus, 
having some characters of alliance with Typhis and Brachyocelus. 

4. “On some species of Hurypterus and allied forms.” By J. W. Sal- 
ter, Hsq., 1.G.S., etc. After alluding to the late and complete researches 
on Hurypterus by Dr. Wieskowski and Professor J. Hall, Mr. Salter ex- 
plamed some formerly obscure points in its structure, and proceeded to 
describe the H. Scouleri, Hibbert, from the Carboniferous limestone of 
Scotland, and the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Kilkenny; the #. (Ar- 
thropleura) mammatus, sp. nov., from the Upper Coal-measures near Man- 
chester ; and LH. ? (Arthropleura ?) ferox, sp. nov., from the Coal-measures 
of North Staffordshire. 

5. “On Peltocaris, a new genus of Silurian Crustacea.’”’ By J. W. 


270 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Salter, Esq., F.G.S., ete. Of this form an imperfect individual, from the 
anthracite-shales (Llandeilo flags) of Dumfriesshire, was formerly described 
by the author as Dicthyrocaris ? aptychovdes. Better specimens enabled 
him to distinguish it as a new generic form belonging to the Phyllopods, 
not far removed from Hymenocaris and Dithyrocaris. A fragment of an- 
other larger form, from the same locality, is described by the author as 
Peltocaris? Harknessi. Mr. Salter also explained his views of the rela- 
tionship of the paleozoic Phyllopoda, among themselves and with the re- 
cent forms, and illustrated them by a diagram in which they were ar- 
ranged in chronological succession. ; 

6. “On a Crustacean Track in the Llandeilo Flags of Chirbury, Shrop- 
shire.” By J. W. Salter, Hsq., F.G.S., etc. This track consists of nume- 
rous short, narrow, oblique, chisel-shaped imprints, on the ripple-ridges of 
the slab ; and, according to the author, it must have been caused by a small 
Crustacean with a bifid telson or prong-like tail. To a like agency Mr. 
Salter refers similar markings described by M. Brebisson as occurring in 
the Lower Silurian Sandstone of Noron in the Falaise (Normandy). 

June 4.—The following communications were read :— 

1. “On the disputed affinities of the Purbeck Mammalian genus Pla- 
giaulax.” By Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 

Referring to his former description (Journal Geol. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 261, 
etc.) of Plagiaulax as a rodent form of marsupial, having affinities with the 
existing Hypsiprymnus ; and to the very different opinion of its relation- 
ship expressed by Professor Owen in the 8th edition of the ‘ Encyclopedia 
Britannica,’ where it is said to have been ‘‘a carnivorous marsupial,” Dr. 
Falconer then reviewed the dental characters of Plagiaulax in detail. 
The incisors, in regard of number, order of suppression, collateral position, 
and relation to the premolars, correspond exactly with the type of marsu- 
pial herbivora, and are wholly at variance with the carnivorous type ; and he 
argued that Professor Owen’s argument drawn from Thylacoleo has no 
bearing on the incisors of Plagiaulax, and gives no support to the car- 
nivorous inference. Of the premolars, after a full comparative re-exami- 
nation (in agreement with his already published views) he finds reason to 
regard the carnivorous deduction from the shape of the premolars to 
be altogether untenable. 

The form of the lower jaw of Plagiaulax having been regarded by 
Professor Owen as conforming with the carnivorous type, the author 
showed that in the non-carnivorous Cheiromys (Aye-Aye) and Phas- 
colarctus (Koala) a similar form of ramus obtains; and that the coronoid 
and condyle of the Aye-Aye are not unlike those of Plagiaulax ; whilst 
in existing predaceous marsupials the condyle has a different form. The 
ae considered that Plagiaulax was essentially a phytophagous mar- 
supial. 

2. ‘On some Fossil Plants from the Hempstead Beds, Isle of Wight.” 
By the Rev. Dr. O. Heer, Professor of Botany, Zurich. With an intro- 
duction, by W. Pengelly, F.G.S. 

These plant-remains, from the Hempstead Series, consist of seeds, 
cones, leaves, and twigs, and are referable to ten species, four of which 
have been found lately at Bovey Tracey also, namely, Sequoia Oouttsia, 
Heer, Andromeda reticulata, Kttin., Nymphea Doris, Heer, and Carpo- 
lites Websteri, Brongn. The other species are Cyperites Forbesi, n.s., Nelum- 
bium Buchii, Kttin., Carpolites globulus, n.s., Chara Escheri, Braun, and 
Ch. tuberculata, Lyell, var. Professor Heer notices that six of the above- 
named species are found also in the Lower Miocene (Tongrian and Aqui- 
taman) of the Continent ; and that this flora, as far as represented, seems 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 271 


to indicate truly freshwater conditions for the formation in which it is 
found. 

3. “On Glacial Surface-markings on the Sandstone near Liverpool.” 
By G. H. Morton, Esq., F.G.S. 

The author here noticed the occurrence of glacial grooves and scratches 
at—Ilst, Toxteth Park, the direction of the strie being N. 42° W., at 
120 feet above the sea; 2nd and 3rd, at Boundary-lane and New-road, 
Kirkdale, the strie being N. 15° W., and at about 80 feet above the sea. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


CoRYLACEE IN A BED oF LigNITE UNDER Si1Lt.—The following brief 
description and sketch of a deposit in which I recently found nuts of the 
Corylacez, those of the Corylus Avellana, or common hazel-nut, may 
interest your readers. 

The lignite bed in which the said nuts are observed, is the part of the 
embankment of a small stream or burn in the neighbourhood of the village 
of Whiteinch, forming the boundary between two counties. The lignite 
bed appears from its position, the lower portion being on a level with the 
water of the burn which when in flood rises a little above it, to crop out 
and to be a portion of the lignite strata several feet under the surface. 
The embankment is only about six feet in height. In the sketch (a a) 
represents fine sand containing organic remains, undoubtedly cainozoie, 
fragments (teeth, etc.) of mammalia, coprolites, and small fossil portions of 
flora, perpendicular in position. Mixed with the sand I found fragments 
of quartz, round in shape, and belonging to that formation termed locally 
the till, or drift. And I may here remark that quartz balls from the 
drift, smoothed and perfect in form, are frequently seen in the walls or 
Dikes in this neighbourhood. Under a portion of the sand or clay (6) and 
the lignite bed (cc) the lignite is mixed with black mud, and contains 
flora not in a fossil state, as is the case with the fragments in the sand (a a) 
but in a state almost per- 


fect, 2. e. the portions of TI TT iii mr mini tii ooh, 
the hazelor birch branches =a Se 


are not fossilized,and have === = 
only lost a small portion == —————— 
of their bark; the position 
of the stems is horizontal. Intermixed with the mud of the lignite and 
almost on a level with the burn, are the nuts in abundance, and not in the 
least subject to any pressure from the lignite above them, but at the same 
time prevented by the mud from being removed by the water of the stream 
when in flood. The black dots in the sketch shows their position in the 
lignite, which like the lignites of the Continent exhibit the true dicotyle- 
donous structure. 

This remarkable deposit appears to be a fluvio-marine bed, or fluviatile 
accumulation. he lignite is undoubtedly still forming, and the position 
of the nuts makes me imagine that the force which pressed the silt (a a) 
down upon the vegetabie remains was the Drift, which appears’ from the 
position of the clay (4) to have come in a northern direction. After pass- 
ing under a bridge, the Dumbarton road, the stream joins the Clyde, 
which doubtless originated the low long valley-terrace, of which the lignite 
bed just described forms a part. ‘These terraces,” Mr. Page remarks, 
“have long attracted attention, and point to atime when many of our 


272 THE GEOLOGIST. 


fertile valleys were chains of lakes and morasses, which have been drained 
and converted into alluvial land by the natural deepening of the river 
channels.” The black putrid mud in which the lignite is embedded, shows, 
in my humble opinion, what I could not before understand, how quartz 
pebbles have been introduced into coal. The mud has contained quartz 
pebbles, and been subjected to gradual but strong pressure, and if I may 
use the term, turned into coal, which retains the quartz pebbles that ever 
and anon crack with a loud noise in our domestic hearths.—P. 8., White- 
inch, near Glasgow. 

CLASSIFICATION oF ANIMALS.—In order that our readers may have the 
opportunity of examining the latest classification of animals, as expounded 
by the most advanced school of zoologists, the following table is inserted, 
which is adapted from the classification of Professors Huxley and Reay 
Greene (Jukes’s ‘Manual of Geology,’ pp. 376 and 710). The groups to 
which an RK. is attached were classified by Cuvier under Radiata. 


1. Supkinegpom VERTEBRATA. 3. SuBKIneDom ANNULOSA. 


Province Abranchiata. 


Clase Mea sete Province 1. Articulata or Arthro- 


jp HALVES poda. 
» Reprinia. Class INSECTA. 
Province Branchiata. » Myriapopa. 
Class AMPHIBIA. ,, ARACHNIDA. 
> an PiseHs: », CRUSTACEA. 


2. Susxinepom MOLLUSCA. *| Province 2. Annulata. 


Province 1. Odontophora. Class ANNELIDA. 
Class CEPHALOPODA. : 
», PYEROFODA. . Province 3. Annuloida. 


» PULMONOGASTEROPODA. 


» BRANCHIOGASTEROPODA. Class Scormerpa, R. 


Rorirera, R 
° ° . 99 2) 
Province 2. Lamellibranchiata. EcuHInoDERMATA, R. 


39 
Class CoNCHIFERA. 


4. Supxinep. CHLENPRRATA. 


Province 3. Molluscoida. 
Class BRaAcHIOPoDA. 


ot Bomyzone i Class AcTiNozoa, R. 
,, ASCIDIOIDA. »- Hyprozoa, R. 


5. SuBkincpom PROTOZOA. 


Province 1. Stomatoda. 
Class Inrusoria, R. 


Province 2. Astomata. 
Class Sponaipa, R. 


» Rurzopopa, R. 
» GREGARINIDA, R. 


MamMatian Rumatns.—A considerable quantity of bones and teeth of 
the extinct mammals has been found in the Ouse valley, in the vicinity of 
Bedford, during the past month, but the greater proportion were much 
broken on their removal from the eravel. The new line of railway from 
Bedford to Cambridge passes through several miles of the Drift, but owing 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 273 


to the low level of the valley hereabouts, the excavations have not been 
very deep, except in parts worked for ballast. In these spots bones and 
teeth of the Elephas primigenius, Bos primigenius, Cervus tarandus, and 
Equus have been found: and also some fragments of a tusk of Hippopo- 
tamus major. No doubt many valuable specimens were flung into the 
ballast wagons, as a whole acre of gravel was excavated to the depth of 
several feet at Summerhouse Hill, and removed by railway trucks to form 
approaches for bridges and viaducts. At this spot the bones were all ex- 
ceedingly brittle, and we believe but few have been preserved entire. 
Last week some large portions of the bones of Hlephas primigenius have 
been taken out of the lowest gravel of the Biddenham Pit, close to the 
spot where flint-implements were found last year; and a molar tooth of 
that animal, which exceeds in size any that have been found whole in that 
vicinity. This specimen has a grinding surface of eight inches in length, 
and 34 inches in width; and the length at the base is fifteen inches. ‘The 
roots of the tooth were very friable, and a great portion crumbled away, 
but the specimen notwithstanding weighs 17% lbs. It is in the collection 


of Mr. James Wyait, F.G.S., Bedford. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


‘Silliman’s American Journal of Science’ for May has an abstract from 
Capt. Reynolds’s forthcoming Report to the United States Government of 
Dr. Hayden’s remarks ‘‘ On the Period of Elevation of the Ranges of 
the Rocky Mountains near the Sources of the Missouri River and its 
Tributaries.’ The evidence, Dr. Hayden considers, makes it clear that 
the great subterranean forces which elevated the western portion of the 
American continent were called into operation towards the close of the 
Cretaceous period, as that the gradual quiet rising continued without 
a general bursting of the earth’s crust until after the accumulation of the 
Tertiary lignite deposits, or at least the greater part of them; after the 
fracture of the surface commenced and the great crust-movements began 
to display themselves, the whole country continued rising, or at least, 
though there may have been periods of subsidence or repose, there 
was a general upward tendency that has continued even up to the present 
time. 

There is also, in the same number, a paper by Sir W. EH. Logan, “‘ On 
the Quebec Group and the Upper Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Su- 
perior,” and a‘‘ Notice of the Rocks between the Carboniferous Limestone 
of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the Limestones of the Hamilton 
Group,” by Mr. Alex. Winchell, the State geologist of Michigan. 

A descriptive account of two sections made across the bed of the Scal- 
disian system, and of the overlying strata near the city of Antwerp, 
illustrated with plates, has been communicated by M. Dejardin, Captain of 
Engineers to the Belgian Academy. 

In 1861, M. Dewalque described the constitution of the Eifel system in 
the basin of Condroz. He has lately added a notice of the same system 
in the basin of Namur.* The great series of paleozoic rocks well known 
under Omalin’s designation of the “terrain anthraxifére,” occupy a 
large surface in Belgium, slightly elongated from east to west, and parted 
by the uprise of the schists of the ‘‘ terrain Rhénan ” of Dumont into two 


* Bulletin Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 1862. 
VOL. V. 2N 


274 THE GEOLOGIST. 


‘‘massives,” or incompletely-separated basins; the southern termed the 
basin of Condroz, the northern the basin of Namur. The former is 
remarkable for the thickness of its strata and the undulations which bring 
the same beds so often to the surface; the latter, of which the different 
series are much thinner, presents only one flexure of each, constituting the 
axis of the coal-field. It offers then a symmetrical series in a disjointed 
basin, of which faults sometimes obscure a portion on one side and some- 
times on the other. The beds now investigated by M. Dewalque corre- 
spond to those which M. Dumont described m 1830 under the names 
of ‘“‘systémes quartzo-schisteux inférieur et calcareux inférieur;” and 
which were subsequently united in the ‘ Carte géologique de la Belgique’ 
under the title of ‘“‘ Systéme eifelien,” corresponding to what is generally 
known as Middle Devonian. 

Admitting the exactitude of the fundamental points of Dumont’s classi- 
fication, M. Dewalque considers the observations of paleontologists must 
cause some modifications of details, and that it is necessary to lower the 
boundary between the Hifelian and Condrusian formations, the division of 
which, Dumont, having only mineralogical character as a guide, has gene- 
rally set too high. 

Dr. C. Malaise, of Gembloux, having collected a series of fossils from 
the fossiliferous beds of Grand Manil, regarded by Dumont as belonging 
to the ‘‘ terrain Rhénan,” but afterwards assigned to the Silurian system 
by M. Gonelet, who stated the occurrence there of Trinucleus allied to or- 
natus, a Calymene near to incerta, Leptena depressa, and five species of 
Orthis. The fossils found by Dr. Malaise have been determined by Pro- 
fessor De Koninck, and are all of Lower Devonian species, Orthis Mur- 
chisontt and O. orbicularis being the predominant forms. The clay-slates 
and fossiliferous quartzites of Grand-Manil and those of Houffalige and 
Ardenne, Dr. Malaise believes to belong to the Systeme Coblentzien of 
the “terrain Khénan,” these fossil fauna being purely of Lower Devonian. 

It is well known that the coal-field of Mons is prolonged subterrane- 
ously into France, covered by more recent geological formation, towards 
Valenciennes, Douai, and Béthune. Of late years researches have been 
made in the opposite direction, to the north of the basin, in the hope of 
finding coal. It is not clear on what grounds the probability of the exist- 
ence of a coal-basin to the north of Lille has been founded; but although 
five years since, when the subject was brought before the Geological So- 
ciety of France, this opinion was contested by Dormoy, Delanoue, and 
Gosselet, a boring was undertaken at Menin, about four leagues from 
Lille; and this has now been stopped, after having penetrated without 
iia 306 métres of rock, of which the last 20 consisted of blackish-blue 
schists. 

It is thus clear that further search to the north of the Menin is hope- 
less. The borings would come upon the Coblentzian rocks towards Thielt, 


or they would probably meet with the underlying or Gedinnian beds of 
the Rhénan formation. 


REVIEWS. 
Further Discoveries of Flint Implements in the Drift. By John Evans, 
F.S.A. (Extract from ‘ Archeologia,’ 1862.) 


The prominent part which Mr. Evans took in a brave and consistent 
manner at the beginning of the discussion on the important topic of the 


REVIEWS. 275 


antiquity of the human race which the early fossil flint-implements evoked, 
gave him justly the leadership of British antiquaries in this warfare against 
deeply-rooted prejudices and inculcated opinions, in the same way as Mr. 
Prestwich took the lead amongst British geologists ; and, as we look to the 
latter for the narration and reduction of new geological facts, we look to 
receive from the former periodically the antiquarian view of all fresh de- 
tails and novelties. We do not propose to use our pages, in expressing 
our sense of the valuable services rendered by Mr. Evans, however justly 
such encomiums may be due, but we prefer to economize our space by 
giving without comment a summary of the “finds” not hitherto recorded 
or but slightly noticed in this journal, and noting the chief topics in this 
addition to his former excellent paper in the ‘ Archeologia’ of 1860, and 
which has been noticed by us, Vol. IV. p. 358. 

Paris.—¥lint-implements have been found by M. Gosse, of Geneva. 
The pits in which they were discovered are two,—that of M. Bernard, 
Avenue de la Motte Piguet, No. 61-63 (Champ de Mars), and that of M. 
Etienne Bielle, Rue de Grenelle, No. 15; in beds of sand and: gravel ana- 
logous to those of Menchecourt, near Abbeville; the beds are not dis- 
turbed, their average thickness is 20 feet. The implements and flint-flakes 
were found in a bed at the base of the gravel from 3 to 5 inches in thick- 
ness, associated with bones of Bos primigenius, Llephas primigenius, deer 
allied to reindeer, and a large carnivorous animal, probably cave-tiger. 
These observations have been confirmed by M. Lartet and Mr. Mylne. 
This place was signalized as a probable locality previous to M. Gosse’s 
discovery by M. Boucher de Perthes. At Clichy, also, one implement has 
been found by M. Lartet. 

Creil.—aA flint-implement (hachette) has been found, under similar cir- 
cumstances, in a gravel-pit at Précy, near Creil, in the Valley of the Oise 
(between Amiens and Paris), with a tooth of an elephant. Exhibited to 
the French Society of Antiquaries, 16th May, 1860, by M. Peigné Dela- 
court. 

Fouen.—The Abbé Cochet reports two flint-implements in the museum 
there, which the curator, M. Pottier, states to have come from the sand- 
pits of Sotteville in the neighbourhood. This requires confirmation, as 
Mr. Evans could not find these implements in the museum, and M. 
Pouchet, the director, was not aware of their existence. Mr. Evans 
states however the pits at Sotteville to be of ‘precisely the character 
that renders it probable that flint-implements may be discovered in them.” 

Clermont.—In a valley leading into that of the Ariége, there is a de- 
posit of gravel underlying brick-earth, at 540 feet above sea-level and 33 
feet above the stream which now waters the valley. In this gravel, mixed 
with bones of EHlephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Felis spelea, 
Cervus megaceros, Equus, and Bos, have been found manufactured ‘ pieces 
_of quartzite.” Dr. Noulet says, ‘‘ One of them is 4 inches in length, 23 inches 
wide, and its greatest thickness 1 inch. It has been formed into shape by 
chipping it on only one of its faces. The second is much more important ; 
both its faces have been modified to bring it to the shape it now pre- 
sents. The side and point, which is truncated, present a bevelled edge; 
but the base, which is cut obliquely, has evidently been polished even with 
care. This is also about 4 inches long, 22 inches wide, and 13 inch thick.’’* 
Mr. Evans passes a comment on this statement. ‘If it be,’ he says, 


* See also an account of a very curious discovery, somewhat of the same nature, in 
M. Lartet’s ‘ Researches respecting the Co-existence of Man with the Great Fossil Mam- 
malia,’ in the Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, 4th ser., tom. xv. 


276 THE GEOLOGIST. 


‘really the case that this is in part polished, and that this polish is 
not due to the natural fracture, it is certainly a singular fact in connection 
with the implements of the Drift period, which have hitherto always been 
not ground. Dr. Noulet, however, has paid some attention to this class of 
antiquities, as he draws a distinction, on account of their rude workman- 
ship, between these implements and the haches gawloises ow celtiques.... 
Beside the chipped implements, round pebbles also occurred, which are 
considered by Dr. Noulet to have been used as hammers; and, though 
the account he gives of the whole discovery is not to my mind quite con- 
clusive, it appears to be a proper case for further inquiry.” 

Swalecliffe (1. of Sheppey).—At the end of Stud Hill Cliffs, near the 
Swalecliffe Coast-guard Station, Mr. Evans picked up a flint-implement of . 
the oval-pointed form, stained by ochreous colours, from having lain in the 
gravel; and in the Drift capping the highest point of the cliff, close to the 
farm-house at Stud Hill, a portion of tooth of Hlephas primigenius. 

Peasemarsh, Surrey.—One implement found by Mr. R. Whitbourn, 
F.S.A., of Godalming, twenty-five years ago, in a gravel-pit. “It was 
embedded in gravel, in a layer of sand about 4 or 5 feet from the surface, 
in apparently undisturbed ground.’ Mr. Whitbourne adds, ‘‘I have 
heard of remains of large animals having been discovered in the same 
beds, but not in very close proximity to the spot where it was found.” 
The gravel-beds of this district have been examined and described by Mr. 
Godwin-Austen, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 278, in which 
communication he states that remains of Hlephas primigenius are fre- 
quently found in this gravel, and that at Peasemarsh there are traces of 
an old land-surface, with branches of trees and the bones of these animals 
uninjured and lying together. 

Hlorton Kirby, Kent.—An implement of the round-pointed form was 
found (November, 1861) on the surface of the ground at the top of the 
hill, on the east side of the River Darent, about a mile E.S.E. of Horton 
Kirby, by Mr. Whitaker, of the Geological Survey. 

The remainder of this valuable paper is chiefly devoted to extended 
illustrations of Mr. Evans’s original classification of these implements 
into, 1, flakes; 2, weapons with an acute or rounded point; 3, oval or 
almond-shaped implements, with a cutting edge all round. A plate of 
twenty examples, drawn to a scale of one-half linear, is given, and will be 
very useful to students and inquirers in conveying a correct idea of the 
sorts and kinds of these objects. Plates of the flint-implements from the 
Valley of the Ouse, Swalecliffe, and Reculvers—one of the latter formed 
from a large Tertiary flint-pebble—are also given. 


Memoir of Geological Survey. Decade X. Preliminary Essay upon the 
Systematic Arrangement of the Fishes of the Devonian Epoch. By 
Professor Huxley. 


A most valnable contribution this to paleontological science. From the 
endeavour to determine the systematic position of Glyptolemus in first de- 


scribing it im Dr. Anderson's ‘‘ Dura Den,” Professor Huxley has been led 
to the reconsideration of the classification of the fishes of the Devonian 
epoch, and eventually to make important modifications of the received 


arrangement of the Ganoidei. We give a brief summary of the Professor’s 
views. m 

Glyptolemus is regarded as a tolerably typical member of a large and 
Well-defined family of Ganoids which abounded in the Devonian epoch, 
but whose members have been less and less numerous in more modern 


REVIEWS. Die 


formations, until at present its sole representative is the African Poly- 
pterus. The genus which approaches it most closely is the Gyroptychius of 
M‘Coy. Glyptopomus is another closely-allied genus, as is evidenced by 
the structure of its skull. The angles of the scales of Gyroptychius are 
apt to become rounded off so as to present a transition from the rhomboid 
to the eyeloid contour. It isthen the less surprising to find fishes with 
eycloid scales so similar in their organization to Glyptolemus, Gyropty- 
chius, and Glyptopomus as imperatively to demand a place near them in 
any natural-arrangement. The description of Holoptychius, compared 
with that of Gly ptolemus, will show their essential alliance, but the scales 
are inform and sculpture widely different. Platygnathus is closely allied 
to Holoptychius. Glyptolepis, with its remarkably ornamented scales, is 
closely allied to Holoptychius. These six genera, then, possess characters 
in common, and constitute a family of Ganoids, the GuypropIPTERINI, 
and which may be subdivided into a rhombiferous group, containing 
Glytolemus, Glyptopomus, and Gyroptychius, with diphycereal tails; and 
a cycliferous group, containing Holoptychius, Platygnathus, and Glypto- 
lepis. 'The family of SavRopIPTERINI, distinct from, although allied to the 
Glyptodipterini, comprises not only the genera Osteolepis, Diplopterus, 
and Triplopterus (?), but also, Professor Huxley believes, the Mega- 
lichthys of the Coal. The Saurodipterini and Glyptodipterini being sepa- 
rated from other paleeozoic fishes as well-defined but closely-allied families, 
the author goes on to consider what others can be ranged with them, or, 
in other words, what are the limits and what the importance of the larger 
group formed by the association of these families. The Crenopopr- 
PTERINI, a family just established by Pander for the reception of Dipterus 
and its immediate allies, must, he considers, take its place in close juxta- 
position to the Saurodipterini and Glyptodipterini, seeing that it possesses 
all those structural peculiarities which are common to those two families ; 
but the former differ in the smoothness of their scales and other points, 
but chiefly in the peculiar form of the lower jaw, which much resembles 
that of a Coelacanth, and in their dentition. In the next place, the true 
Ca@.acantuini have ano less well-definéd right to occupy a similar position, 
but the Professor restricts the group to Cawlacanthus, Undina, and Ma- 
cropoma. ‘The type species of Celacanthus, that on which the genus was 
founded by Agassiz, is the C. granulatus of the Magnresian Limestone, 
which in all the great features of its organization is similar to Undina; so 
that, contrariwise, any fish which differs in essentials very widely from 
Undina can be no Celacanthus. As the case stands, then, there is no 
evidence of the supposed distinction between Celacanthus and Undina ; 
while, on the other hand, a recent comparison of well-preserved speci- 
mens of Undina and Macropoma has led to the conviction that these two 
genera are not much less closely allied. All the structural characters 
which are among the peculiarities of Undina are equally well marked in 
Macropoma, except that the teeth are more distinct and cylindrical. But 
further than this, as Dr. Mantell originally suspected and as Professor 
Williamson has since demonstrated, Macropoma exhibits the peculiarity, 
seemingly without a parallel among fishes of other families, of having the 
walls of its air-bladder ossified. Now Professor Huxley finds good evi- 
dence of the existence of a similarly ossified air-bladder, not only in 
Undina, but in a well-preserved specimen of a new genus of Ccelacanth* 
from the Lias, in the Museum of Practical Geology. Thus it appears to 
be certain that fishes closely allied to Celacanthus granulatus, forming a 
well-defined family, have ranged in time, with remarkably little change, 


* Holophagus Gulo, described in this Decade by Sir P. Egerton. 


278 THE GEOLOGIST. 


from the Permian formation to the Chalk inclusive ; their special affinities 
being chiefly with the Ctenododipterini, the scales, the arrangement of 
the teeth, and the form of the lower jaw presenting many curious 
analogies. The Glyptodipterine family contains, as we have seen, both 
eycliferous and rhombiferous genera; and following out the alliances of 
the former sub-family, the cycliferous Ctenododipterini and Ccelacanthini 
have been included in the same larger or sub-ordinal group with the 
Glyptodipterini. On the other hand, tracing out the congeners of the 
rhombiferous sub-families, we have arrived at the Saurodipterini; and the 
question then remains, what other rhombiferous Ganoids naturally arrange 
themselves at this end of the series? So far as the Professor is aware, 
there is no other fossil rhombiferous Ganoid which comes within the scope 
of the sum of characters common to the Seurodipterini, Glyptodipterini, 
Ctenododipterini, and Ceelacanthini; but among recent fossils there is one, 
the Polypterus, which very nearly approaches the required standard, and 
is unquestionably allied to the Saurodipterini. These results are then put 
in a tabular form thus :-— 


Order GANOIDEI. 
Sub-orders— 
I. AMIADZ. 
Il. LreprpostTEipz. 
III. Crossoprerycip#. 
Fam. 1. PoLyprTERini. 
Dorsal fin very long, multifid; scales rhomboidal. 
Ex. Polypterus. 
Fam. 2. SAURODIPTERINI. 

Dorsal fins two; scales rhomboidal, smooth; fins sub- 
acutely lobate. 

Ex. Diplopterus, Osteolepis, Megalichthys. 
Fam. 3. GLYPTODIPTERINI. 
Dorsal fins two; scales rhomboidal or cycloidal, sculptured ; 
pectoral fins acutely lobate ; dentition dendrodont. 
SusB-Faminty A, with rhomboidal scales. 
Ex. Glyptolemus, Glyptopomus, Gyroptychius. 
Sus-Famity B, with cycloidal scales. 
Ex. Holoptychius, Glyptolepis, Platygnathus 
[| Rhizodus, Dendrodus, Cricodus, Lam- 
nodus |. 
Fam. 4. CTENODIPTERINI. 

Dorsal fins two; scales cycloidal; pectorals and ventrals 
acutely lobate; dentition etenodont. 

Ex. Dipterus [ Ceratodus ? Tristichopterus ?] 
Fam. 5. PHANEROPLEURINI. 

Dorsal fin single, very long, not subdivided, supported by 
many interspimous bones; scales thin, cycloidal; teeth 
conical ; ventral fins very long, acutely lobate. 

Kx. Phaneropleuron. 
Fam. 6. Ca@LacaNTHINI. 

Dorsal fins two, each supported by a single interspinous 
bone; scales cycloidal; paired fins obtusely lobate ; air- 
bladder ossified. 

Ex. Celacanthus, Undina, Macropoma. 
IV. CHonprostreip%. 
V. ACANTHODID®. 


REVIEWS. 279 


Tn this table it will be seen that Professor Huxley adds the suborder 
(III.) CrossopTERYGIDE (xpocowrtds mrepvé, ‘ fringed fin’’) to those pro- 
posed by Agassiz to comprise the existing Polypterus and all those extinct 
ganoids which fall within the following definition :— 


“Dorsal fins two, or, if single, multifid or very long; the pectoral, and usually 
the veutral, fins lobate ; no branchiostegal rays, but two principal, with sometimes 
lateral and median jugular plates, situated between the rami of the mandible ; 
caudal fin diphycercal or heterocercal; scales cycloid or rhomboid, smooth or 
sculptured.” 


The fifth family also has been added by the Professor for that singular 
genus Phaneropleuron, described and figured in this decade. 

Of the group of Crossopterygide, as thus established, four families are 
not only paleozoic, but are some wholly and all chiefly confined to rocks 
of the Devonian age,—an epoch in which no fish of the sub-orders 
Amiade or Lepidosteide is known to make its appearance, unless 
Cheirolepis be one of the latter. Rapidly diminishing in number, the 
Crossoptery gide seem to have had several representatives in the Carboni- 
ferous age; but after this period, unless Ceratodus be a Ctenododipterine, 
they are continued high in the Mesozoic age only as a thin though conti- 
nuous line of Celacanthini, and terminate at the present day in the two 
or three known species of the genus Polypterus, which however is clearly 
related to the rhombiferous Crossopterygians, or to exactly that group of 
whose existence we have no knowledge in any Mesozoic or Tertiary 
formation; while the Ctenododipterini and Celacanthini, which differ 
most widely from Polypterus, are those which continue the line of the 
Crossopterygide from the Paleozoic to the end of the Mesozoic period. 
Both ends of the Crossopterygian series appear thus to be isolated from 
the modern representatives of the suborder: Polypterus being separated 
from those members of its suborder with which it has the closest zoological 
relations by a prodigious gulf of time, and from the fossil allies which are 
nearest to it in time by deficient zoological affinity. Professor Huxley 
offers the following diagram in illustration of his meaning :— 


PaLZOZOIC. 


Ctenodipterini, Phaneropleurint, Glyptodipterini, Saurodipterint. 
Coelacanthint. iy 


| y 
MEsozo!c. 


Celacanthini. 
TERTIARY. WY 


RECENT. Yo 


Polypterini.~ 

Here it is obvious, that in time the Polypterini are twice as remote from 
their immediate zoological affines, the Saurodipterini and Glyptodipterini, 
_as they are from their more distant connections, the Ccelacanthini. Pro- 
fessor Huxley calls attention to the many and singular relations subsisting 
between that wonderful and apparently isolated fish, Lepidosiren, sole 
member of its order, and the cycloid Glyptodipterine, Ctenododipterine, 


280 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Phaneropleurine, and Ccelacanth Crossopterygide, and he leaves the 
bearing of these unquestionable facts upon the great problems of ZOO- 
logical theory to be developed by every one for himself. The craniofacial 
bones which Professor Huxley recognizes in the Devonian fishes are the 
Supraoccipital, Frontal, Ethmoid, Epiotic, Parietal, Squamosal, Post- 
frontal, Prefrontal, Supratemporal, Postorbital, Suborbital, Maxilla, Pre- 
maxilla, Hyomandibular, Os quadratum, Suprascapula, Operculum, Sub- 
operculum, Jugular, Spiracular Ossicles, and Supratemporal Ossicles. 

Plates are given, executed in the first style of art by Mr. Joseph Dinkel, 
of Glyptolemus Kinnaird, Phaneropleuron Anderson, which are described 
by Professor Huxley. Sir P. Egerton figures Tristichopterus alatus, 
Acanthodes Peachii, Acanthodes coriaceus, A. Mitchell, Climatius scutiger, 
Diplacanthus gracilis, and Cheiracanthus latus. 

The importance of this communication on the paleontological history of 
fishes must be manifest to all of our readers, and we hope that a Table, 
exhibiting the classification of Devonian fishes, showing the genera ranging 
throughout the different beds, and thus exhibiting at one view both the 
classificatory and geological aspects of the question, may be speedily 
given by the learned professor, whose work we have read with so much 
pleasure and instruction. 


Revue de Géologie pour 1 Année 1860. By MM. Delesse and Laugel. 


We cannot better explain the object and scope of this work than by 
uoting a portion of the preface. The authors say :—“ Every day geology 
extends its empire ; in all civilized countries and their colonies, even in 
the most remote, facts are collected with ardour which may serve to ex- 
plain the history of the earth. It is characteristic of modern science, and 
this observation is especially applicable to the natural sciences, not to pro- 
gress simply by the efforts of some few men of genius, but likewise to re- 
ceive constant impulse by the co-operation of a crowd of observers, some- 
times as obscure as they are devoted. . . . Without a spirit in favour of any 
particular system, withont preconceived opinions, we shall endeavour to 
present every year an impartial, faithful, and concise account of the geo- 
logical labours undertaken in every country. We ought to restrict our- 
selves within sufficiently narrow limits. If our work presents any omis- 
sion, we beg that it may not be imputed to any wish of our own; if it 
contains any inaccuracies, we shall feel obliged by being informed of them. 
We shall receive with gratitude all communications that may enable us to 
improve a work, of which we do not wish to conceal from ourselves either 
the difficulties or imperfection.” The well-known industry and ability of the 
authors should lead us to expect that this endeavour would be carried out 
in a satisfactory manner, and we may say with confidence that this Review 
for 1860 will be of great service to the students of geology. It must how- 
ever be borne in mind that the authors have chiefly devoted their atten- 
tion to what has been done out of France, especially in England and Ger- 
many; and that they do not pretend to give an account of the geological 
memoirs which appear in the widely circulated French publications. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


AUGUST 1862. 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE FLINT- 
IMPLEMENTS IN RESPECT TO THE ANTIQUITY 
OF MAN. 


Ir is extraordinary how many people have an obliquity in their 
mental vision. Some mentally never see straight at all, but look at 
everything askew. These are harmless people; you know them at 
once, and pity their defects, just as you do a person with a downright 
squint. But those who have a slight cast in the eye are the most 
dangerous; you are not aware they occasionally squint; you do not 
perceive, perhaps after even a close scrutiny, that there is anything 
amiss with their vision at all. So it is with the mental cast; you do 
not observe it, as a general rule, for it is only now and then it shows 
itself. 7 
When the Antiquity of Man was first proclaimed from the dis- 
covery of the Abbeville flints by Boucher de Perthes, no one believed 
it. Hverybody thought him lke the mad man who swore all the 
world was mad; and so it seemed, then, as if all the world had 
mental obliquity of vision, which made them declare our savant of 
Abbeville to be labouring under a delusion. When, however, Rigollet, 
Prestwich, Flower, Lyell, Evans, and others of the goodly company 
of geologists,—as unbelieving, however, as so many St. Thomases,— 
went, saw, and returned believing, the fame of Boucher de Perthes’ 
discoveries gained ground. Some there were who hardened them- 
selves in their unbelief, and hazarded wild theories of ocean-waves 
chipping out artificial forms, and of recent objects sinking down in 
VOL. V. 20 


282 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the ground, and burying themselves, and other equally untenable 
notions, but these waxed fewer and fewer, not by dying out, but by 
becoming converts to the novel truths. Others there were who 
enthusiastically grasped at everything that came in their way, and 
attempted to send back half the antiquities of the historic period to 
the Gravel age. These still exist, and if their labours be a little rash, 
they are not altogether useless. If they make a great many mistakes, 
they now and then drop on a new fact, and ¢ha¢ covers a multitude 
of failures. Others there are, and these are the best of all, saving 
the real workers for science, who lose no chance of collecting any- 
thing they think may afford useful knowledge. The people, so com- 
mon at one time, with the dreadful mental squint about the flint 
implements of the gravel age are now, as we have said, few and far 
between, but there are still some possessed of the dangerous slight 
cast of mental obliquity, if we mistake not-—that 1s, if the obliquity 
does not lie with ourselves. Of course we do not think it can, 
nobody ever does. Our worthy contemporary the ‘ Parthenon,’ who 
says, or rather prints a great many good things, has lately printed a 
translation, from the French ‘ Comptes-Rendus,’ of a paper by M. Sci- 
pion Gras, who brings up a question we really had thought completely 
settled. We knew our best men had gone to see; we knew they had 
come back testifying to the facts. But now M. Gras comes forward 
with an article “ On the Insufficiency of the Arguments drawn from 
the Position of the Worked Flints of St. Acheul to show the Exist- 
ence of Man during the Quaternary Period.” There is mental obli- 
quity somewhere, that is certain; we fear it rests with M. Gras, for 
he says he went to St. Acheul, “ desirous of enlightening his doubts” 
as to the conclusions drawn from the position of the flint axes there. 
Of course we saw the notice of M. Gras’ paper in the ‘ Comptes- 
Rendus,’ where it appeared a short time before our contemporary 
printed the translation ; we think also we saw it noticed in ‘ Cosmos,’ 
but we thought it best to let it alone. We saw no good in stirring 
up uselessly a vexed question, by a reference to a paper, the argu- 
ments in which were either founded on erroneous bases or altogether 
futile. As, however, our respected contemporary has brought the 
paper before English readers, who otherwise perhaps would never 
have heard at all of it, we cannot let M. Gras’ opinions pass without 
comment. M. Gras shall, however, have fair play at our hands. We 
will give the translation intact before our comments. He begins :— 


‘There are found at St. Acheul and in its neighbourhood (leaving out 
of question the more elevated plateaux) two diluvial deposits which appear 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 283 


to be quite distinct. The more ancient one, immediately overlying the 
chalk, is essentially composed of light yellowish or brown flints, for the 
most part rolled, disseminated through a whitish-grey calcareous sand. 
The relative proportion of the sand and flints varies; sometimes veins of 
almost pure sand alternate with flints, orcoverthem. It 1s not uncommon 
to find in the sand freshwater shells, almost intact, in spite of their fragi- 
lity,—a fact which indicates a siow process of accumulation. Ferruginous 
infiltrations from above have often stained the naturally clear colour of 
this deposit. This diluvium has a very unequal thickness, owing to the 
numerous erosions which it has undergone. It shows itself at St. 
Acheul at a height of from thirty to forty métres above the Somme; at 
the sand-pits of Moutiers, at the western extremity of Amiens, it descends 
all at once to the bottom of the valley ; finally, at Menchecourt, a suburb 
of Abbeville, it passes beneath the turf-beds. It results from this, that 
before the deposit of this transported bed, the Somme had already hollowed 
out its channel in the bosom of the chalk, which is seen rising right and 
left to a great height. The valley was even then deeper than it is now; 
it appears to have been entirely filled up at the time of the arrival of the 
rolled flints. The second diluvial bed in the neighbourhood of St. Acheul. 
is an argillaceous-sandy stratum of a dark brown, of which the thickness 
is usually from a métre and a half to three métres ; it is almost everywhere 
dug for brickmaking. It shows usually at its base a thinnish layer of 
angular flints disseminated through a brown earth, rather more sandy than 
the rest of the mass. This argillaceous-sandy diluvium extends crosswise 
at once over the lower clear grey diluvium and over the chalk; it presents 
all the signs of complete independence. Its deposition probably coincided 
with the second excavation of the valley ; it is observed, in fact, at different 
levels corresponding with those at which the Somme has successively 
flowed before withdrawing itself to its present bed.” 


In this account there are three topies which call forth observations. 
1. There are (at least) two diluvial deposits.—There is nothing new 
in this. Mr. Prestwich, one of the most inquiring and eapable investi- 
gators of the subject, and one of the strongest believers in: the correct- 
ness of Boucher de Perthes’ assignment of the chipped flint-imple- 
ments to the Gravel age, has. already shown, that there is a “ high- 
level gravel” and a low-level or “ valley-gravel;’’ and in his papers 
before the Royal Society has shown, also, why there are these depo- 
sits, what are their relations to each other, the probable physical 
and meteorological conditions under which they were deposited, and 
their bearings in respect to the evidence of the flint-implements as 
a proof of the antiquity of man. 2. That it is not uncommon to find 
in the sand freshwater shells, almost intact, in spite of their fragility. 
—There is nothing extraordinary in this. The wonder would be if 
we did not find them. Mr. Prestwich has shown how much ice-action 
had to do with the bringing down, during the early spring floods, of 
the flints, rock-boulders, and other heavy materials,—probably often 
also the bones of animals; and if these heavier substances were frozen 


284 THE GEOLOGIST. 


into the ice-floes, masses of fine gravel, sand, and earth, enclosing fra- 
gile shells, would also be brought down in the same way. Moreover 
the gravel deposits would chiefly be formed during the period of 
spring floods caused by the melting of the ice; and consequently 
during the summer there would be a period during which mollusca 
might live under the influence of the quieter river actions, which ac- 
tions would naturally intercalate beds and streaks of sand and clay 
with freshwater shells amongst the coarser gravels. 3. That the 
Valley of the Somme was even then deeper than wt is now ; and appears 
to have been filled up at the time of the arrival of the rolled flints.— 
All this has nothing to do with the question of man’s antiquity at all; 
besides there is no proof given by M. Gras. What he states as to 
the various deposits and their conditions go for nothing in this re- 
spect; they simply do not bear upon the point at all. It matters 
not whether the valley was hollowed out, whether it was filled up or 
not, before the “ rolled flints’’ were brought in, so long as the gravel 
deposit containing the flint-implements can be proved to be of geo- 
logical age—that is the point; and M. Gras, if we do not misunderstand 
him, admits the flint-implement-bearing beds are covered by other 
diluvial or alluvial deposits—a sufficient admission of their antiquity. 

As to a previous complete excavation of a valley before any depo- 
sits collected in it, such a notion in the main would be a very falla- 
cious one, tor the scouring action of water and rainfalls is as great 
beneath a deposit as it is over its surface. Rains wash away visibly 
the fine soil on the surface, but the water that filters through also 
washes away invisibly the fine disintegrated surface of the rock on 
which the deposit lies; so the whole mass of deposits gradually— 
slowly but surely—sinks into a greater and greater subterranean 
valley as age follows age. 

But to return to M. Gras—for he himself admits the position that 
the flint-implement gravel was covered over, in the following pas- 


7re*— 
sage ‘ 


“ By the help of these details a clear idea may be formed of the position 
of the worked flints ; they are found in the lower grey diluvium at variable 
depths, and often considerably below the surface of the soil. An attentive 
examination of the flinty mass which encloses them yields no re-arrange- 
ment of materials. Moreover, everywhere above these flints there is a 
thickness of two or three métres of diluvium of the latest date, of a brown 
colour. This itself appears to be perfectly intact, and sharply separated 
from the grey diluvium; which excludes the possibility of the introduc- 
tion of foreign objects vertically through the argillaceous-sandy earth.” 


But here follows what certainly shows either M. Gras’ obliquity of 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 285 


mental vision, or our own. If we err, however, fortunately we shall 
be in goodly company, for we shali be on the side of Prestwich, Ri- 
gollet, Lyell, Evans, and those many others who hold the like opi- 
nions with ourselves upon the subjects M. Gras attacks. Let M. 
Gras, however, speak his own arguments :— 


“These different circumstances, in appearance so conclusive, are not 
however irreconcilable with the idea of diggings having been made, at 
a certain epoch, in the soil. Before demonstrating this, | must dwell upon 
some important facts. The first is, the integrity and perfect preservation 
of the axes; they look as if just come from the hands of the workman. It 
has been inferred (the inference was unavoidable) that they were buried 
on the spot, or brought from very near localities. A second fact, not less 
remarkable, is the truly astonishing multitude of these axes. The number 
of them found at St. Acheul, in the compass of about a hectare (two 
acres), has been estimated at more than three thousand. The rich collec- 
tion of M. Boucher de Perthes alone contains more than a thousand. M. 
Albert Gaudry, who has caused diggings to be made, has seen nine of 
them disinterred, one after another, in close succession. The fact of the 
multitude of worked flints, joined to the entireness of their edges, shows 
clearly that there was formerly a considerable manufacture of these objects 
on the spot. If we adopt the hypothesis of those who would place this 
manufacture beyond historic times, it must needs be admitted that there 
existed on the banks of the ancient valley of the Somme a people of the 
quaternary epoch occupied in cutting axes by thousands. As evidently it 
could not use them all, it must doubtless have supplied them to other qua- 
ternary races of the neighbouring countries. But if this were so, why has 
this industrial population of the ancient world left no other trace of its 
existence except these rudely-fashioned flints? Why, above all, do we 
not find human remains in the diluvium? Their absence is the more 
astonishing, as it is not uncommon to find there the remains of elephants, 
rhinoceroses, and other animals. If men, so civilized as to occupy them- 
selves with commerce, lived on the banks of the Somme at the commence- 
ment of the quaternary period, they must have constructed habitations 
there, and these would be seen now in the mass of diluvium which at a 
later period filled up the valley ; they would even be perfectly preserved 
in it. Now this deposit has never presented the least vestige of a habita- 
tion, nor even of other products of human industry, excepting flint objects. 
Another consideration strengthens all these grounds of doubt; worked 
flints, similar to those which are claimed as diluvian, have been found in 
such a position, that it has been necessary to attribute to them a modern 
origin. M. Yoillez, an archeologist and engineer of Mons, possesses a 
collection of four hundred axes, which for the most part are rough, and do 
not differ sensibly from those of St. Acheul; nevertheless, they have all 
been collected at the surface of the soil. Is it admissible to suppose that 
products so similar were manufactured, the one set at the commencement 
of the quaternary period, the other during the now existing period, seeing 
that an immense interval of time separates the two epochs? ” 


Here again we select the points of attack:—1. The perfect pre- 
servation of the axes —* They look as if they had just come from the 
hands of the workmen.” Say “some look,” and then we shall reply, 


286 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Quite right, M. Gras; some do look as if they had just come from 
the hands of the workmen. Assuredly they do—and very naturally 
too, seeing they have in reality just come from the hands of the 
workmen. We have seen abundance of forgeries, both from the val- 
ley of the Somme and from Yorkshire. There are indeed plenty of 
forgeries. Nevertheless there are some real ; these however are com- 
paratively few. No one ought to mistake the real geological flint- 
implements from the forgeries. No one who is used to break flints 
but ought to tell readily whether a flint was broken with an zon in- 
strument or not. A modern hammer will not crack or flake a flint 
in the same way that a stone will. Try it, reader, and see for your- 
self. 

Setting aside forgeries, there is even then no reason why the flint- 
implements should not be in good preservation. If first frozen into a 
mass of ice, then transported enveloped in, and protected by that 
iee-casing, then dropped on the floor of the wide-spread river-flood 
by the melting of the ice, then covered over perchance by the soft 
materials of the summer stream, or left on the verdant marshy tract 
during the interval between the periodical floods, what was there to 
weather or otherwise injure so hard a substance as flint? Nothing 
that we know of. Moreover, the truth is, that as far as our experi- 
ence goes—and we have seen more than a few of the fossil flint-im- 
plements—they are by no means all always so wonderfully perfect. 
Some are decidedly worn—even as much so as the gravel in which 
they are found. 

2. The astonishing muliitude of these aves.—Surely, no one thinks 
one man made the lot, or that they were all made at once. Geologists 
always ery out for “plenty of time.” They ask for plenty of time—a 
whole geological age—for the formation of the gravel deposits. So 
therefore the primitive men kad a whole age to chip fiints in. The 
very quantity of elephant and other bones found in the gravel-beds 
shows nature did take an age to form them, unless we suppose a super- 
natural increase and growth of living beasts, followed by an equally su- 
pernatural and wholesale destruction. But in reality, how common 
are the true worked flints ? We have seen one only from all the great 
gravel-beds round and under London, and miles of them have lately 
been cut through for the sewer-works. We have seen, may be, half a 
dozen from Suffolk, a like number from Bedford, two or three from 
Kent, and less than a dozen more from all parts of England. As to the 
Yorkshire specimens, we must know more about them, and where they © 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 287 


come from, before we can say much about them. Isuppose, however, 
whether ancient or modern, not more than a hundred exist from that, 
the largest county in England and numbering as many acres as 
there are words in the Bible. M. Gras says, however, that in the 
rich collection of M. Boucher de Perthes, there are more than a thou- 
sand; that M. Toillez, of Mons, possesses four hundred; and that at 
St. Acheul the number fownd in the compass of a hectare (two acres) 
has been estimated at more than 8000! Now, does M. Gras mean 
that at St. Acheul two acres of gravel have been excavated for flint- 
implements ? or does he mean that in proportion to the quantity of 
gravel actually excavated there, an estimate has been made of the 
probable number of 3000 as existing in two acres of gravel? How 
many feet thick? There’s a rub. Two acres, 30 feet thick, would 
contain some millions of tons of gravel, this proportion of flint-im- 
plements to the number and quantity of unworked flints and pebbles 
in which would be very small indeed. Take the total of 3000 in 
another way, and suppose each man of a tribe numbering a hundred 
males to make or lose one new weapon every two years, from the age 
of twenty to the age of forty, after which period of lifetime we 
will suppose every man to be either useless, superannuated, or 
killed in battle or by wild beasts in the chase. Then it would only 
take three generations of this little tribe to make or lose the quan- 
tity M. Gras thinks so enormous. 

Really there is nothing wonderful in this total after all. When we 
come to look into it, we only wonder it is not more. 

3. That the worked flints were manufactured on the spot.—Many 
might have been; certainly not all. We have already disposed of the 
assertion of the universal preservation of their perfect sharp edges. 
The sharp edge of a newly-broken flint will cut your fingers—try it; 
we have never seen the edges of a flint axe or even a fossil flint flake 
that would. 

Some, we have said, were probably ice-borne down the annual 
floods. If Mr. Prestwich be right in his supposition of their being 
ice-chisels, in some localities where the primitive men had fishing- 
stations many might be dropped through the holes they were used 
in breaking out. As to the commercial aspect which M. Gras sug- 
gests, it would neither make for nor militate against the antiquity of 
man. We are sorry to say, hewever, that we have not so high an 
opinion of the intellectual capacities of these our primitive ancestors 
—if our ancestors they really were, and perhaps they were not—as 


288 THE GEOLOGIST. 


to believe them capable of commercial enterprises at all. Moreover, 
the traffic in flint weapons presupposes the means of international 
communication; we doubt very much if the flint-implement men, 
who could do no more than chip stones,—who did not know even 
how to grind them,—had any means for this. The Veddahs of one 
tribe at this hour do not know the Veddahs of another tribe, their next 
neighbours; less than fifty miles of mere territory part them. For 
our own part, we think so poorly of the flimt-implement men as to 
be scarcely inclined to feel any more pride in a pedigree from them 
than from the much-abused and hirsute Gorilla. 

4. Why has this industrial population of the ancient world left no 
other trace of its existence? Why, above all, do we not find human 
remains ?—How many skeletons of all the known species of fossil 
monkeys all over the globe have been exhumed from their stony 
tombs? Are there a hundred fragments in all the collections of all 
the museums and naturalists in every region and part of the earth? 
And have we found every kind of fossil monkey yet? No sane man 
will assert it. Human teeth have been found in Pleistocene strata 
as old as the gravel-beds; negative evidence we have seen too often 
to mean nothing, to trust it in a question like this. Human remains 
have been found with bones of the mammoth, and fossil deer and 
bear, although these are ignored. Those as yet found we admit may 
not be the remains of the flint-implement-making men. “ Wait pa- 
tiently, they will yet be found.’ But will M. Gras declare that there 
are not in the gravel-beds of the Somme seams of brittle lignite ; and 
will he venture to assert that-these may not be the charred remains 
of huts? 

Take another view. The beast, when he sickens to die, goes to 
some retired spot and leaves his inanimate carcass on the soil. There 
it may become embedded, or the floods may lift and strand it on some 
shallow bank. Nature buries it or moulders it, and returns it dust to 
dust in her own way. When a man dies, the case is different. The cow 
weeps not for the death of the bull, the lion sheds no tears for the 
loss of the lioness, the hippopotamus scrapes no hole in the earth to 
bury its lifeless mate, the gorilla lights no fire to burn to ashes the 
mother of its progeny. The lowest of human beings must have had 
human passions and human feelings. The primitive wife, little sensible 
as we can but conceive of anything like fine sensations, would, de- 
graded as ever we could possibly conceive her, naturally weep for the 
loss of her husband; and though no priest performed a marriage 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 289 


ceremony, in such relationship notwithstanding ever stood the union 
of human beings. The man would mourn for the loss of his help- 
mate. Death to human beings would always have had a different 
aspect to what death has to the beast. In the human heart there 
would be the innate desire to lay the lifeless corpse or its ashes where 
its resting-place could be visited. If the flint-implement men were 
human, such must have been, even in the first of this pristine race, 
the feelings which death would evoke; and if such the feelings, 
burials or burnings must have disposed of the mass of that primitive 
race. If burials, we must look elsewhere than to the débris of 
floods or the alluvia of river-beds for human bones. 

We may search for a later but still early race near where the great 
monoliths and the gigantic stones of so-called Druids’ temples exhibit 
their weather-beaten forms; but if cremation were practised, then 
for all traces of the flint-implement makers, other than their works, 
we must trust to chance alone. 

The massive bones of the great beasts could not escape the eye; 
the teeth and skulls of smaller animals would at once attract atten- 
tion; but what notice would a few fragments of calcined bones 
amongst the débris and broken fragments obtain ? 

What explorer of caves, what digger in gravel-pits, has searched 
over the heaps of bone-bits always thrown aside as waste? In this 
respect we have followed the common way ; but we are not without 
suspicion that more than once we have missed our chance. 

5. That worked flints, similar to those claimed as diluvial, have been 
Sound in such a position that it has been necessary to attribute to them 
a modern origin.—No instances are stated by M. Gras; we cannot, 
therefore, refute any cases to which he alludes by statements of the 
facts. Besides which, if such specimens exist under such circum- 
stances, they may be forgeries; or they may be relics—and this is 
not at all unlikely—preserved by more modern tribes. We know 
that the savage races of the present day do sometimes treasure the 
weapons of their ancestors ; and there are many other ways in which 
such occurrences may be explained when the actual circumstances 
are given. 

6. That M. Toillez’ axes have been collected at the surface of the 
soil.—This is put as a “poser” by M. Gras; but strong as he 
thinks it, it goes down at once before a simple question. It is 
slaughtered by a breath. Do we not find ordinary gravel-flints in 
myriads on the surface of the soil? Can you go through any field, 


VOL. V. 2 P 


290 THE GEOLOGIST. 


over any downs, across any chalk country, and not pick up, if you 
please, tons upon tons or cart-load upon cart-load? If one sort, why 
not the other? Is the proportion of flint-implements to unworked 
stones likely to be less in the disintegrated gravel-bed strewn over 
the soil than in the solid untouched stratum lying intact in the 
earth? And if not, are we less likely to find flint-implements 
on the surface of the soil than in the gravel-beds beneath it? We 
are sure we need not reply to these questions—our readers will have 
answered for themselves. 

7. Is it admissible to suppose that products so similar were manu- 
factured, the one set at the commencement of the quaternary period, 
the other during the now existing period, seeing that an immense inter- 
wal of time separates the two epochs ?-—Supposing the facts to be true, 
—but the facts are not stated by M. Gras, as already observed,—it 
might be so, if it be admissible to believe that small tribes or scat- 
tered individuals of a nation or race of mankind could live on after 
the destruction or distribution of the great bulk or mass of the nation 
orrace. Just as some modern uncivilized tribes are presumed to be 
the descendants of once numerous and powerful peoples. Just as 
British and Celtic articles may be met with in Saxon and Roman 
graves; just as medieval relics are still treasured in our houses, so 
may we always expect to find some relics of more ancient races 
amongst the relics of the more modern ones. The case put however 
by M. Gras is a presumption, and it is futile to fill our pages with 
suppositions in reply to suppositions. We go on therefore to M. 
Gras’ final summary :— 


“To all these difficulties one single fact only can be opposed, that, 
namely, of the absence of all apparent disturbance in the diluvium; but 
this fact is not a peremptory reason, for it may be explained in a plausible 
manner. 

“Let us refer the manufacture of axes, which everything proves to have 
formerly been carried on in the valley of the Somme, to the origin of his- 
toric times. It is certain that the men occupied in this employment were 
not obliged to go very far to procure the first material that was necessary 
for them. By digging in the soil to a moderate depth, they found a great 
choice of flints ready to be cut. This was probably even the reason why 
this kind of industry sprang up in the country. The digging of flints might 
take place in two ways, by pits or by galleries. The first means was the 
most costly, since it was necessary to pass through the brown argillaceous- 
sandy diluvium before arriving at the flints, and because the removal of 
the rubbish must take place vertically. The digging by horizontal 
galleries opened on the side of the valley, taking advantage of the steep 
banks, was evidently preferable. The excavation of these ancient galleries 
is so far from being unlikely, that even at the present day such are still 
made for the extraction of gravel. I have seen one at St. Acheul, and I 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 291 


measured its dimensions approximately: it was six métres in length by 
one métre ninety centimétres in height, and two métres in breadth. This 
gallery supported itself well without props. It may be admitted that in 
former times the excavations were less in breadth and height, which would 
render them yet more solid. 

« The flints freshly extracted, and not deprived of their quarry-moisture, 
are much easier to work than those of which the drying has proceeded to 
some length. Itis probable, consequently, that the ancient miners roughly 
formed in the interior of the galleries the axes destined to be polished. 
After this first labour a selection was doubtless made; the least shapely 

ieces, considered improper for sale, were rejected and left on the spot. 
hen, after a length of time, the galleries, which had served at once as 
shops for mining and for rough-hewing, had crumbled down, the chipped 
flints left on the floor were enveloped on all sides by the soil from whence 
they had been extracted. Supposing that the subsidence of the galleries 
was propagated up to the surface, the upper sand of argillaceous diluvium 
must have sunk a little, parallel to itself, without becoming mixed in any 
way with the grey flinty diluvium. If this was the real course of events, 
it is certain that at the end of some time all trace of disturbance must have 
been completely effaced. This explanation agrees well with the rude form 
of the flints disinterred—so rude, that it is difficult to understand how 
they can have been put to use in this state. It is confirmed by another 
peculiar circumstance, which had been held to be unimportant, but which, 
nevertheless, has much import. M. Albert Gaudry, who has been cited 
above, remarked that the nine worked flints discovered in his presence lay 
nearly all palpably at the same level. Was not this level that of the floor 
of an ancient gallery ?” 


This is how M. Gras looks at the question from his own point of 
view, after,as he presumes, he has demolished his adversaries. After 
De Perthes, Prestwich, Lyell, Evans, we, of the oblique vision in M. 
Gras’ opinion, have been out-argued and convicted of erroneous in- 
terpretations of the facts. Well! so, for the nonce, let us suppose 
the case. Is M. Gras, then, right in the views he promulgates 
in this summary? Assuredly not. If we are wrong, according to 
him, on one side of the barrier of facts, he is wrong on the other. If 
our geological interpretations do not agree with the evidence of facts, 
his historical speculations certainly do not. 

Whatever eyes M. Boucher de Perthes has for looking at gravel- 
beds,—and being the first to pick out the flint-implements would 
cause us to give him credit for sharp ones,—we can for a certainty 
speak of the capabilities of Mr. Prestwich’s organs. We have been 
over very many miles of gravel and drift deposits with him, over 
country every lane and turning in which has been familiar to us from 
infancy ; and we do know, from experience, that if there be anything 
to be seen, he will see it. For more than twenty years of his life he 
has been incessantly studying over England and France, as a favourite 


292 THE GEOLOGIST. 


speciality, these very quaternary beds; and if any man’s knowledge 
or judgment is to be relied upon for an opinion as to the age or 
nature of such deposits, assuredly it is his. Cautious in the extreme 
in adventuring conclusions, and fastidiously painstaking in collecting 
facts and testing the accuracy of his observations, no cooler intellect 
could discuss and put in intelligible order such intricate conditions 
as the gravel-beds to the inexperienced present. Those who have 
read his late masterly communications to the Royal Society will need 
no comments of ours to satisfy them of the accuracy of the views ex- 
pressed, and of the ability of their author. But, to reply to M. Gras’ 
suppositions. Referring the flint-implements to historic times for 
their origin, M. Gras states:—1. That the makers were not obliged to 
go very far for their material.—True, they were not obliged, 7f—and 
the whole summary involves a constant use of the little conjunction 
—if they did make the implements on the gravel-banks in which they 
have been embedded. This is by no means certain; but one thing is 
quite sure, we have ourselves seen—and handled—a veritable fiint- 
implement from the valley of the Somme, which, although found in 
the gravel-bed, was undoubtedly and unmistakably,—we were born 
in a chalk district, and on the sea-coast, so we know well what flints 
and pebbles are,—made out of a flint nodule taken directly out of the 
chalk rock. 

In this case, therefore, the primitive manufacturer went at least to 
the side of the valley to get material which, according to M. Gras, 
he had, and quite as good, on the gravel-bank under his feet. If the 
manufacturer could be supposed to have worn breeches, he might be 
supposed to have pocketed a fine nodule which he chanced to fall in 
with on a pleasure-ramble ; but as he cannot be presumed to have so 
clothed his lower extremities, that presumption is untenable. 

As arule, we faney that very many of the implements were made 
of flints directly taken from the Chalk; such flints would be prefer- 
able, generally, to gravel-flints, although suitable specimens could 
undoubtedly be collected from the gravel-beds, but not so abundantly 
as M. Gras infers. That some implements were made of large 
quaternary flint pebbles, the specimens from Herne Bay are indubi- 
table evidence. 

2. The digging of the flints by means of pits or galleries.—Setting 
aside the improbability of men digging for what they could find with- 
out labour on the surface, what, in the name of all mysteries, had 


those poor primitive savages to dig with? Flint-implements? It 


M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 293 


strikes us forcibly that, with one of those poor pointed tools, a man 
would soon be tired of the attempt to dig a hole in gravel, much less 
a gallery. Half a dozen strong men——and this supposes the ancient 
manufacturer to have kept a staff of workmen, unless he got volun- 
tary help from his tribe—would make but sorry progress with those 
pointed flints. Even our stalwart navvies would strike from such 
work with such tools. But 7#—we must use the httle conjunction 
agvain—7f the pits and tunnels were dug, were actually made, it is not 
true to suppose we should have no evidence of their former existence. 
The gravel would not sink into the excavations and show no differ- 
ence of structure at those spots which had been hollowed out of the 
beds; for even such unsorted and heterogeneous deposits as gravel- 
beds are, they do distinctly show traces of former disturbances. We 
have clearly traced, by their appearances, disturbances made in 
gravel-beds by the Romans and Saxons in forming their graves or in 
digging for foundations of walls or pits; and what is likely to be dis- 
tinctly apparent after the lapse of a thousand or more years, may be 
presumed to be at least detectable after the lapse of far longer ages. 
Moreover, #f this explanation of M. Gras be acceded to, it involves 
the corresponding necessity of our finding the flint-implements in 
heaps or in narrow lines,—where the pits and galleries have been,— 
and not disseminated here and there, as they are, at least most 
usually, if not invariably. Supposing, as M. Gras does, that the 
subsidence into the galleries extended to the roof, there would be a 
furrow left at the surface,im which more recent deposits would accu- 
mulate, and if there were any sub-superficial coating of brick-earth 
under the soil, that would bulge 
downwards in concentric, curved 
lamin, such as we constantly see 
exposed in stone-quarries when 
surface-clays have sunk down into 
fissures, and as we constantly ob- ae 
serve in the sand and gravel pipes Stee Gone: es 
of the Chalk districts,in which too — Fullers’ earth, rolled; 4. Sand and 
we often find patches of older Ter- gravel, filling up a fissure in 5, Kent- 
, unity ish rag strata. 

tiary clays, containing shells that : 
have been embedded in the overlying quaternary drifts. 

The accompanying little cut of an exposure of one of these subsi- 
dences in Mr. Bensted’s quarry, at Maidstone, will show at once how 
visibly they leave their traces. 


7. The rudeness of the implements suggestive of rough hewing for 


294 THE GEOLOGIST. 


an after-finishing for sale.— Rude as they are, and this is one of the 
points we dwell upon in proof of their antiquity, they were used in 
the state in which we find them, for otherwise we should find the 
finished examples elsewhere, which as yet, at any rate, we have done 
nowhere. We find stone and flint celts, polished and ground; but 
those, as we long enough ago observed in this journal, were used by 
the broad flatend. The large fossil f{lint-implements were all worked 
to a point, and which point, contrary to anything we know of the 
use of any other stone tool, ancient or modern, was the part used. 
There is thus, besides the absence of chipping, one positive character 
at least which separates the fossil implements entirely from any other 
effort of savage industry. Wiull M. Gras assert he has ever seen a 
pointed weapon either ground or polished 

M. Gras further lays great stress on M. Gaudry having found 
nine worked flints on the same level. We might speak of levels in 
regularly stratified deposits, what levels are there in a gravel-bed ? 

Taking it for granted, however, nine were found on one level, is 
that number so large as to cause surprise? Jf—why may we not 
indulge in conjunctions ?—if there were a fishing-station on the 
spot, would nine be a large number to be presumed to be lost during 
the sojourn of the fishermen there? Or is there not an infinity of 
incidents which might bring together so trifling a lot? 

Finally, to close our comments, may we not justly ask M. Gras if 
the flint implements belong to historic times? Who were the men 
that used them ?* 


NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 
By W. H. Bensren, Esa. 


The outcroppings of the Cretaceous strata in the valley of the 
Medway, the great quarries in the lower beds of the greensand for 
the much-used Kentish ragstone, the extensive chalk-pits at Burham 
and other places, the pottery clay-pits and the numerous brickfields, 
afford excellent facilities for the observation of the geological struc- 
ture of Maidstone and the surrounding country. 

By taking the road from Rochester, through Maidstone, to Linton, 
the outcrops of the Chalk and its subordinate beds are passed over in 
succession across their line of strike. 

* The letters from Mr. Peacock, Mr. Evans, and Mr. Blake, in last week’s ‘ Parthe- 
non,’ Which has been published since our remarks were in type, show that we have by 


no means exhausted, even in our extended article, the refutations which can be given to 
M. Gras’ opinions. 


PLATE XVI. 


‘INEM ‘HNOLSGIVN LY (INOLS-DVU HSILNGM) AUUVAD NOGONVNADSI 


‘JOP “S'DO'A ‘ompovyl ‘C'S 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 


The chalk hills are covered, at various places, 
with a red, tenacious (Post-Tertiary or Diluvial) 
clay, in which great quantities of flint nodules are 
buried. 

At the “ Upper Bell,” on the Rochester road, the 
chalk hill is 620 feet above sea-level, and from this 
altitude the spectator’s view ranges over a great ex- 
tent of beautiful country. In the left bank, a large 
tabular bed of flint, about two inches thick, crops 
out. Layers of hard chalk also occur here, con- 
taining numerous sharp casts of fossils—Trochi, 
Dentalia, Hamites, Scaphites, small Ammonites, 
etc. This bed is also met with at Boxley and Dept- 
ford. It is known to but few collectors, and some 
perseverance in breaking up pieces of this hard 
chalk is necessary to obtain specimens of its fossils.* 

In a field at Boxley Hull, I found an Echinus 
in a lump of the chalk which had been strewed 
over the land, in the interior of which were minute 
shells, apparently of a species of Arca(?), that 
had probably gained access to the empty dead 
shell, as the Echinide do not swallow entire shells, 
but gnaw dead fishes and such-like objects with 
their teeth. The Spatangide live by swallowing 
sand and mud, deriving their nutriment from the 
organic particles they contain. Near here the 
Lower Chalk makes its appearance, and the great 
Burham pits, from which Mr. Toulmin Smith ob- 
tained many of his beautiful specimens of Ventri- 
culites, are about a mile off, in a westerly direction. 
These pits are famous for the very numerous fos- 
sils of high interest which they have produced. At 
Halling, too, on the opposite side of the Medway, 
considerable quantities of chalk are dug for burn- 
ing; the lime made from the chalk of these places 
being considered of very superior quality. It is 
known commercial lyas ‘“‘ greystone lime.” 

In 1839 I discovered the femur of a turtle in a 
pit at Halling, and also an abdominal plate at Bur- 
ham. These were the first remains of turtles dis- 
covered in the Kentish chalk. But a few years 
later I had the good fortune to find a most perfect 
specimen. ‘This unique fossil I presented to Dr. 
Mantell, and it is now in the British Museum. 

It was figured and described by him in the ‘ Phi- 
losophical Transactions,’ pl. 2, for 1841, and sub- 

* This seems to be the bed of ‘chalk-rock” referred to by 


Mr. Whitaker in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvii. p. 170. 
—Ep. Grou. 


295 


gs Sand. 


with flints; 2. Lower Chalk; 8. Firestone, or Upper Greensand ; 4, Gault ; 


gstone; 7. Atherford Clay; 8. Weald Clay; 9. Hastin 


Fig. 1.—Srcrion From BiuE Brett Hitt tro CrowzBoroven. 


5. Redsand; 6. Kentish Ra 


a. Tertiary Red Clay ; 4 4, Drift Clay ; 1. Upper Chalk, 


296 THE GEOLOGIST. 


sequently by Professor Owen, in the volume of the Paleontographical 
Society’s publications for 1851. 

The chalk was dissected away, so as to admit of the removal of a 
great portion of the dorsal shell, and thus some 
of the vertebre, four plates of the plastron, and 
a coracoid bone were brought to view. 

Since the discovery of the Chelonia Benstedii, 
Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Wells, has procured 
from the same pit a series of marginal and ster- 
nal plates of a turtle of very large size. These 
specimens have been admirably cleared from the 
chalk, and now form a part of her most inter- 
esting and valuable collection. 

In 1847, another fossil turtle was found in an 
adjoining pit in the Lower Chalk. It corre- 
sponded in size and number of plates with, in- 
deed it was almost a facsimile of, the original 
Chelonia Benstedw. 

Perhaps the most interesting fossils found in 
this locality, were some long, slender, cylindrical 
bones, which Professor Owen considered, in the 
JAA first instance (1840), if they were the remains of 
—ZZy a bird at all, as being more allied to the Alba- 
— tross than to any other. The bones there no- 
ticed are the portion of a humerus nine inches 
long, with one extremity nearly entire, but the 
other broken completely off. The uncertainty expressed by Professor 
Owen was afterwards cleared up by the discoverv, by Dr. Bowerbank, 
of the head and teeth of a new species of Pterodactyle, described by 
him in the Geological Society’s Journal, 1845, when he assigned 
these bones, from their microscopic structure, to that extraordinary 
class of flying reptiles. 

The fine specimen of Dolichosaurus, described in the Palzontolo- 
gical Society’s Volume for 1851, was discovered here by Mrs. Smith, 
of Tunbridge Wells, in 1830. A similar fossil (probably part even 
of the same specimen) was obtained from this same locality by Sir 
Philip Egerton, in 1840, and was briefly described by Professor Owen 
as the remains of a lizard, consisting of a series of small vertebree 
in their natural position. The vertebre are united by ball-and- 
socket jomts, and they are proved to belong to the Saurian class of 
reptiles by the presence of many long slender ribs, and by the conver- 
sion of two vertebre into asacrum. Portions of an ischium and a pubes 
are connected with the left side of the sacrum, and demonstrate that 
the reptile had hinder extremities. These typical parts are referred 
to particularly, as the specimen otherwise has certainly more the ap- 
pearance of a serpent than a lizard. Serpents have long, slender ribs, 
and therefore the saurian character depends alone on the assumed 
Sacrum, as the extremities are wanting. 

In December, 1842, Professor Owen described a fossil paddle which 


Fig.2.—femur of Trionyx 
from Halling Chalk Pit. 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 297 


was exhibited at the Geological Society’s meeting, as that of a 
marine saurian, the phalangial digits not being articulated by convex 
and coneave surfaces, as in the terrestrial group, but by plane faces. 
These were roughened, indicating ligamentous connection. 

Professor Owen then mentioned also the occurrence of vertebree 
of a large Plesiosaurus in this chalk; the late Mr. Dixon, of Worthing, 
haying had three or four in juxtaposition, which are now in the British 
Museum. He considered the specimen belonging to Mrs. Smith, of 
Tunbridge Wells, as probably referable to that genus. It also pre- 
sented considerable resemblance to another extinct genus, the Plio- 
saurus, but the bones were thicker and not so expanded at their 
extremities. There was also another large saurian of the Cretaceous 
epoch, the Mosasaurus ; but although fine remains of its teeth and 
jaws had been discovered many years ago, no extremities had ever 
been found. If the teeth of the Mosasaurus should be found in the 
locality where Mrs. Smith’s specimen was got, he thought it might 
indicate that the paddle above referred to belonged to that genus. 

The Firestone is very little developed in this neighbourhood. The 
only traces I have seen are thin beds, a few inches only in thickness, 
at Snodland, near the church. Between there and Burham Church, 
a bar of rock runs across the river; it is never dry, and its obstruction 
causes a considerable fall when the tide is low. 

The best section of the Gault is at a place called the Varnes, on the 
banks of the Medway, near New Hythe. At low-water the lowest 
beds are to be seen. ‘The bank is about fifty feet above low-water. 
Slips are frequently occurring from the effects of the weather, and the 
current of the river washing away the softer parts, when fossils 
may be found in abundance. Thence the gault may be traced to 
Folkestone on the one side, and into Sussex on the other, forming a 
valley at the foot of the chalk-downs. Its usual colour is light blue 
when dry, but of a very dark blue when wet. Some veins of red 
ochreous clay marked with Fuci (/. Targonit) occur frequently. 

The gault forms a stiff soil, locally known as “black land,” and its 
outcrop generally appears as a marshy tract. From its tenacity 
and its dipping under the chalk-strata, through the cracks and fissures 
of which the water finds its way, it forms a subterranean reservoir 
from the junction or lip of which the springs burst out. 

I would here say a few words on the spring-heads of the Maidstone, 
district. “These are nearly all si- = ----~. 
tuated in circular cavities in the ge ee BS 
Lower Chalk, where it projects —~~ = 
over the Gault, and an interesting 
phenomenon is observable in the ~ 
retrogression of the spring-head 
into the chalk by its erosive action. 
If we suppose the waters originally 
burst out at the foot of the hill Zi ae 
B, fragments of chalk would be Fig. 3.—Spring-head. 
carried away at that point, and as the sides grew higher the rim of 

VOL. V. y) Q 


= LEA ae 


298 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the hole would expand upon the surface, and thus a rounded cavity 
would be formed, at the bottom of which the spring is now seen to 
issue (at A). 

The water of these chalk springs is highly charged with calcareous 
matter, obtained in flowing through the chalk fissures, and this is 
precipitated on the fragments of sticks, roots, and leaves, which fall 
into the streams. At Boxley Abbcy very fine specimens of calcareous 
tufa may be procured, as may be also incrustations of fir-cones, etc., 
by placing them in the water near the spring-head. 

A spring of water at Cosington, bursting from the Lower Chalk, 
deposits a coating upon the stones in its course of a bright crimson, 
which at one time was considered to proceed from an impregnation 
of iron-pyrites, but has now been determined to be of vegetable origin. 

The fossils of the Gault most common are Ammonites, Hamites, and 
Inocerami. At the Varnes great quantities of round nodular masses 
are found. On breaking these stones a nucleus with concentric 
waving lines is seen; they take a polish without difficulty. These 
nodules, so rich in phosphate of lime, have been conjectured to 
be coprolitic, but my opinion has long been that they are originally 
of zoophytic or spongeous origin, and that the presence of the phos- 
phate is attributable to deposition from the water of the Cretaceous 
sea, aS portions of ammonites and inocerami are found to contain 
equally considerable quantities of phosphate. 

We now come to the Lower Greensand.—The White or Bearsted 
sand lies immediately under the Gault, upon the red ferruginous 
sands. It is limited in extent, occurring only at certain places and 
in different states of purity, White Heath, near Hollingbourne, af- 
fording a very superior kind. I never heard of any fossils being 
found in it. 

The next deposit is the ferruginous sand, with layers of ironstone. 
These beds rise rather abruptly’ 
from beneath the Gault at Box- 
Wii ® ley and Sandling, at an angle 

or dip of 20 degrees. Sections 
z of these beds may be seen at 
the sides of most roads which 
i lead to the Gault, where the 
Fig. 4.—a a, horizontal layer of ferruginous sand has been cut through in 
sandstone ; b b, ete., layers in a false strati- many places. The most com- 
fication Feu 
mon fossils in these beds are 
casts of zoophytes or sponges, generally of a cylindrical shape. Some 
appear allied to Siphonia, having a bulbous head, the sand being loose 
or non-segregated in the interior. A few marine shells may be de- 
tected by close inspection, chiefly Terebratule. Trigonia aleformis 
occurs ina bank of this sand near Thornhills. In Sandling Wood 
about twenty feet of the sand is exposed, in which the ramification 
of a marine plant is seen to great advantage. In places rings of 
ironstone, circular and oblong, give an appearance of wavy lines, but 
by a little examination it may be seen that these lines are sections 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 299 


of bundles of tubes growing together; this is proved at another 
part by the exposure of longitudinal portions of the tubes running 
together nearly horizontally for a distance of four or 
five feet. By a turn of the bank the ends may be 
seen, presenting the connections of each pipe at the 
side. V. 
In some situations at Bearsteda fine clean white and 12> 

nearly pure silicious sand is found, occupying a divi- “¥ 

sion of the red sand adjoining the gault. The white p,, 5 _ Tans. 
beds are sometimes not seen near the surface, but ap- pateeecan 
pear to be below the red sand. Veins of red sand of ironstone 
eross the beds of white sand in various ways. pipes. 

The great development of the Kentish ragstone in the Maidstone 
district is a most important feature. It is found at various depths 
from the surface, and in detached beds of different magnitudes; the 
first in descending order rising from under the red ferruginous sands 
just mentioned. The beds then become broken and separated by 
valleys and faults; the latter filled up with gravel, red sand, rolled 
masses of yellow “fullers’ earth,’ and red clay (brick-earth). The 
masses of stone extend across to the escarpment of the lower beds 
above the valley of the Wealden—a distance from Sandling to Lin- 
ton of about five miles. 

The ragstone at Barming Heath Hill has a thickness of eighty 
feet, and the whole series is passed through by a well sunk near the 
Lunatic Asylum. 

The valley of the Medway is bounded on each side by this rag- 
stone from Mill Hall to within a mile of Yalding, where the es- 
carpment is separated by the opening in which the drainage-waters 
of the Weald flow out. Besides this great valley, which runs trans- 
versely to the escarpment, there are two others which separate it la- 
terally, each giving rise to springs which fall into the Medway. A 
third vale or gorge has its course between the Loose Vale and the 
Medway. It runs from near the edge of the escarpment over the 
Wealden beds at Coxheath, in nearly a direct line to Tovil. This 
erack has very steep sides, and the ragstone is close to the surface. 
No water however flows in this channel, and it has all the characters 
of a chalk-wold. Its course is nearly parallel to the Medway. 

The first of these lateral valleys begins in a meadow near Lang- 
ley Heath, where a slight and gradual depression of the surface indi- 
cates the beginning of a great crack or fissure at right angles to the 
Medway valley. This gradually deepens until near Langley Church, 
where a small spring breaks out and runs on close to Boughton 
quarries, before reaching which however a fissure receives the water, 
and the stream is lost to view for some distance ; but, as several issues 
of water flow out below in the same valley, there is little doubt that 
they come from the original source. Continuing onwards, they run 
into the Medway at Tovil. The fall is very considerable, as in the 
distance of two and a half miles ten mills are supplied with power.* 

_ * This is a very valuable hint for roughly obtaining the level of a district —Ep. GEOL. 


300 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The course of the second valley is nearly parallel with the first ; 
the spring-head is a short distance from Chislet Park. Several smaller 
streams, having their origin in the Lower Chalk, fall mto this valley 
after running over the gault and passing through channels formed 
by divisions or cracks in the ragstone beds. At Maidstone the stream 
mingles with the Medway. 

These two cracks or valleys in the ragstone are situated on the 
east side of the Medway ; the west has no such breakage of the strata 
into vales, but by its compactness turns the course of the river from 
south-east to north-west, which latter direction it takes on passing 
the town of Maidstone. 

The land is of considerable elevation on the west bank of the river, 
and the ragstone is found in larger beds; in some situations very 
near the surface. 

As a general rule it may be laid down that, in this district, the 
faults run parallel with the larger crack or valley, as is the case in 
all the quarries in the vicinity of Maidstone. The dipping of the 
strata is not always greatest according to the proximity to the line of 
disturbance; and but little variation is found from the horizontal 
position in the higher and more compact beds, although the abundance 
of vertical cracks and fissures testify to the great disturbances they 
have been subjected to at different periods of time. 

The Kentish Ragstone series consists of limestones, with alternating 
beds of soft sandstone, called “ Hassock” by the workmen. In some 
parts beds of dark flint or chert are substituted for the limestone. 
The average thickness of the layers is about 12 inches, and the 
stone is of various degrees of hardness and compactness, the lowest 
being the most fossiliferous, and having moreover characteristic dis- 
tinctions from the upper in colour, texture, and fossil remains. In 
some layers the distinctions are difficult of detection, but these ob- 
servations apply to the ragstone within five miles of Maidstone, and 
as far only as my own experience goes. 

The analysis made for Professor Phillips’s “ Observations on the 
Kentish Ragstone”’ gives the following proportions :— 


Carbonate of Lime, with a little Magnesia...... 92°6 
Harthiy: wiat ter: ses os Sock aerate ee 6°5 
Oxide Of Tron tai seck ota ek cer See ee ee 3) 
Carbonaceousomalter’..<... ccs.) 6 ee ee LS 
100°0 


It may be interesting here to describe my own quarry in these 
much valued stone-beds, and which is known now as the “ Iguanodon 
Quarry,” from the discovery in it of the gigantic remains of that 
enormous reptile. It is the largest in Kent, and produces stone of 
very excellent quality. The number of layers of building- and road- 
stone is 21, alternating with beds of hassock, and the vertical 
depth worked is 75 feet. The strata here have no dip, although 
they are traversed by numerous vertical cracks and fissures. A bed 


PLATE XVII. 


SIPHONIA BENSTEDII (Lower Greensand). 
[In the Collection of W. Bensted, Esq.] 


CORRESPONDENCE, 301 


of Drift clay covers these stone-beds, and fills up the interstices of 
their openings, so that the land-surface shows no indication, by inequa- 
lities, of any of these faults or fissures. The distance from the Med- 


Fig. 6. a, Drift clay filling up fissures in Ragstone beds, ¢ ¢; 4, Bed of the Medway. 


way is about a quarter of a mile, and the floor of the quarry is about 
160 feet above the level of that river; the land gradually sloping 


towards it. 
(To be continued.) 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Professor King’s Synoptical Table. 

Dear S1r,—No doubt there is much that is incorrect in my “ Synoptical 
Table,’ which you have done me the honour to insert in your valuable 
periodical (Vol. V. pp. 193-7); but unfortunately, your correspondent 
““W. W.,” who charges it with “many imperfections,” and who fancies 
that he has pointed out certain of its errors in his letter, published in your 
last number, seems to have entirely overlooked the qualifications and spirit 
necessary for such a task. 

The three instances which ‘ W. W.” parades as ‘striking mistakes,” I 
may be pardoned for saying are nothing of the kind, but simply inten- 
tional omissions. Any one referring to the Table itself will see that I 
purposely avoided, as much as possible, giving the subdivisions of the 
** Formations.”’ I merely inserted what appeared to me to be the most 
characteristic ‘‘ Types” of the different Formations, ‘ Marine,” or “ Fresh- 
water ;”’ believing that such were sufficient for students in general. 

I shall be most happy to avail myself of any suggestions or corrections 
offered through the medium of your pages; but I regret I cannot adopt the 
Hocene classification, given by ““W. W.” As will presently be seen, “ it 
is not as useful as might be to a student in the south-east of England ;” 
nor is it in accordance with the views of one of the highest authorities in 
Tertiary Geology. 

The classification of the Eocene ‘‘ Formation,” as given in my Table, is 
fully borne out by the following remarks, extracted from the new edition of 
Jukes’s admirable Manual :—“ Sir C. Lyell, however, in his Supplement, 
thinks that it would be more convenient to retain a nomenclature common 
on the Continent, and to class the Hempstead series, and its contempora- 
neous beds as Lower Miocene, making the beds from the Barton Clay to 
the Bembridge series inclusive Upper Eocene, and taking the Bracklesham 
and Lower Bagshot beds only as Middle Kocene’’’—(pp. 651-2). Further, 
the latest investigations, such as may “be said to be up to the present 
time,” are all strongly confirmatory of the view maintained by many geo- 
logists, that the Hempstead beds are of the ‘‘ Lower Miocene” age, and not 
Hocene.—(See Abstract of Heer’s paper, and of another by Sandberger, in 
the same number of the ‘ Geologist ’ containing the letter of ““W. W.” !) 
I entertain a strong suspicion that even the Bembridge Marls, etc., are 
Miocene. 


302 THE GEOLOGIST. 


True, the “‘ Upper and Lower Bagshot Beds are not noticed” in my 
Table ; for the simple reason, that they cannot be regarded as good “ Ma- 
rine Types,” like the Barton and Bracklesham Clays: one contains only a 
few vegetable (Terrestrial) remains; and the other rarely any fossils, ex- 
cept in one place, where, however, they are “in too friable a condition to 
bear transport or examination.” (See Jukes’s Manual, Ist ed. pp. 527 and 
531; also Phillips’s Manual, p. 387.) ee 

In placing certain ‘“‘marine and fresh-water types” on “the same line,” 
the object was to show that they may be approximately “ of the same age.” 

When “ W. W.” takes on himself again 


“To spy into abuses, and shape faults 
That are not,” 


or to “point out” the “many other mistakes” which he fancies I have 
committed, I would feel obliged by his showing the relation between the 
Lower Green Sand and the Atherfield Clay. At the friendly suggestion 
of the Editor of the ‘ Geologist,’ I have mserted, in a new edition of the 
Table, now printing as a separate sheet, the Lower Green Sand, placing it 
at the bottom of the Cretaceous System. 

Permit me to embrace the present opportunity of making a few cor- 
rections before closing this letter. The name Rhyncopora im my Table 
(proposed for a genus or sub-genus, typified by De Verneuil’s Terebratula 
Geinitziana, the peculiar characters of which were described in my ‘‘ Notes 
on Permian Fossils,” published in the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural 
History’ for April, 1856) should have been spelled Rhynchopora. “ So- 
merset Teleosaurus Upper Lias,” suggested by my friend Mr. C. Moore, 
of Bath, was by some mistake placed in the Jurassic instead of the Lias- 
sic System. 

In my paper “ On the Origin of Species,” contained in the last number 
of the ‘Geologist,’ a slight mistake has occurred. The first line of the 
sixth paragraph ought to have been—“ There is no difficulty in referring 
fo instances, ’ ete. 

I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
Witiiam Kina. 
Belmont, near Galway, July 4, 1862. 


Tertiary Mammalian Remains at Dulwich. 


Str,—It may be interesting to your readers to know that I have lately 
found a front tooth (incisor or small canine) of a mammalian animal from 
the Woolwich Beds, near Dulwich, exposed some time since by the works 
for the southern high-level sewer. Mr. Rickman has found some bones 
he calls mammalian, but there is a doubt as to their being such. 

: Yours, etc., 


ae A. Bort. 
5, Hanover Terrace, Peckham, 11th July, 1862. 


Sicilian Bone-Caves. 


. os : ; : 

_ Str,—I hasten to give that explanation of the error or rather confusion 
r « > y 7 2 Bd a My 2 7 s 

in my Table which Dr. Falconer, as the original describer of the Grotta 

di Maceagnone, has a right to demand. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 3803 


The column marked ‘ Maccagnone”’ should have been headed ‘ Mac- 
eagnone and San Ciro,” and the species inserted therein are those derived 
from both localities. 

The Felis, Ursus, Hyena, Bos, Hippopotamus, and Cervus have been 
hitherto not referred to their species by Dr. Falconer. To obviate further 
mistake, I append a list of the species derived from both bone-caves, 
as stated in Dr. Falconer’s paper (Quarterly Journal, Geol. Soc. vol. 
xvi. 1860, p. 99 e¢ seq.) :-— 


San Ciro Cave, Maccagnone Cave, 
Two miles from Palermo. A mile west of Carini, near Palermo. 


Felis, a large species. Felis, “as large as F. speleea, but not yet 
, specifically determined.” 
Canis. 
Ursus. Ursus. 
Hyena. 
Cervus. pane two species. 
Bos. 
Sus. 
Elephas antiquus. ELlephas antiquus. 
le aaa \ two species. Hippopotamus. 


Bones of Ruminants. 


The liability in a table of this kind to error is obvious, when the 
exigencies both of space and time are duly considered. 

Before the unenviable employment is commenced by me of ‘‘a wholesale 
manufacture of species,’ I shall wait the further identification of the 
specimens from the Sicilian bone-caves by Dr. Falconer. 

Yours truly, 
CHARLES CARTER BLAKE. 


Origin of Species. 


S1r,—In the July number of the ‘Geologist’is a letter from Professor 
King, of Galway, expressing the opinions to which that high authority has 
arrived, after years of due thought and consideration, on the probable 
method of operation of continuously-operating secondary laws, which have 
produced the species of animals successively or progressively throughout 
geological time. While paying the highest tribute to the candid manner 
in which this eminent geologist has treated his subject, I am led to suggest 
that the meaning of one passage in his admirable paper may be liable to 
misconstruction. 

Professor King holds “that an organism, whether it typifies a species, 
a genus, a family, an order, or a class, is an autotheogen, if it possesses a 
series of characters which isolate it from other equivalent groups; and 
that inherent and external forces may modify such organism, ‘“ thereby 
resulting in geneotheonomous forms.” The limits within which au- 
aopheogeny can be predicted are, however, left unexplained by Professor 

ing. : 

A writer in 1830, reasoning from the philosophical standpoint of the 
state of knowledge in the time of Cuvier, would have confidently pointed 


304 THE GEOLOGIST. 


to the horse as an “autotheogen.”’ Cuvier says, “If species have gradu- 
ally changed, traces of these gradual modifications would be discovered ; 
and between the Palgotherium and the recent species some intermediate 
forms would be seen; a fact yet undemonstrated. Why have not the 
bowels of the earth preserved the monuments of so curious a genealogy P”’ 
ete. ete. (Cuvier, ‘ Discours Préliminaire sur les Révolutions de la Surface 
du Globe,’ 6th edition, 8vo, Paris, 1830, p. 122.) Here the absence of 
intermediate organisms, previous to the discovery of Paloplotherium, 
Anchitherium, and Hipparion, is made the groundwork on which to base 
a theory of distinct specific origin, or ‘‘autotheogeny.” That, ‘‘on psycho- 
logical grounds alone, Man must be regarded as isolated from all other 
organisms” may be conceded. As psychological grounds however are 
unsafe bases for a zoological classification, and as the extent of man’s 
isolation is the problem which biologists are attempting to decipher, what- 
ever position we may assign to man, whether with Owen in a distinct sub- 
class Archencephala or with Huxley in a family Anthropini of the order 
Primates, we must at least admit that the anatomical characters of man 
are not more unlike those of the higher Gyrencephala than the lower 
Gyrencephala are unlike the Lissencephala or. Lyencephata, i.e. that 
man is not more unlike the gorilla than the whale is like the rat or the 
opossum. I therefore would be slow to recognize that Man is an 
autotheogenous species. 

I coincide with Professor King’s remarks, that ‘‘ natural selection only 
holds the rank of a subordinate or ancillary agent,’ but I am far from 
identifying the “‘ other and higher principles involved ” with the doctrine 
of direct creation of animals through a fiat from a Primary Cause, even 
though such a fiat might operate through ‘‘a principle inherent in animated 
nature.” Such phenomena as unity of plan, parthenogenesis, and succes- 
sive development are far more probably accounted for on secondary laws 
alone. ‘‘ He must be a half-hearted philosopher who, having watched the 
gigantic strides of the biological sciences during the past twenty years, 
doubts that science wiil sooner or later make this further step, so as to 
become possessed of the law of evolution of organic forms—of the 
unvarying order of that great chain of causes and effects of which all 
organic forms, ancient and modern, are the links.” * 

In Professor King’s ethnological remarks, no mention is made of the 
probabilities of a derivative origin of the lower races of man, as indicated 
by their physiological affinities to the higher apes. I commend the 
following extract from Dr. Biichner’s ‘ Kraft und Stoff’ (8vo, Frankf. p. 
75, 1858) to Professor King’s consideration:— 

‘‘An unbroken series of the most varied and multifarious transitions 
and analogies unites the whole animal kingdom together, from its lowest 
to its highest unit. Even man, who in his spiritual pride thinks himself 
raised igh above the whole animal world, is far removed from being 
an exception to this law. The Ethiopic race unites him by a crowd of the 
most striking analogies with the animal kingdom in a very unmistakable 
way. The long arms, the form of the foot, the fleshless calf, the long 
slender hands, the general lankness, the but slightly protuberant nose, the 
projecting teeth, the low retreating forehead, the narrow. and posteriorly 
protuberant head, the short neck, the contracted pelvis, the pendulous 
belly, the want of beard, the colour of the skin, the disgusting odour, the 
uncleanliness, the making of grimaces whilst speaking, the clear shrill tone 
of voice, and the ape-like character of the whole being, are just so many 
characteristic signs, which in all the corporeal forms and relations of the 

* Huxley, Address to the Geological Society, Feb. 21, 1862, p. 238. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 305 


negro unmistakably show the most decided approach to the monkey 
genus.” The same author goes on to say, “ Without doubt, man in his 
earlier periods approached in his whole character nearer to animals than 
he does in his present condition; and the oldest excavated human skulls 
indicate rough, undeveloped, and animal-like forms.” 

Such conditions as these, agitating and seething in the minds of patient 
observers and reflective thinkers in France and Germany, are being forced 
upon the minds of Englishmen. Our best thinkers now refrain from 
offering any theological or metaphysical explanation of geological facts. 

I trust that Professor King, whose valuable tables of strata as recently 
published in the ‘ Geologist’ have had so beneficial an effect on science, 
may be ultimately led to reject the unphilcsophical theory of ‘‘ autotheo- 

eny. 
F The doctrine of ‘‘Geneotheonomy,” or the “ Derivative” hypothesis of 
animal causation, is now fast converting the minds of all paleontologists. 
Amongst its supporters can be numbered* Lamarck, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 
Grant, Matthew, Rafinesque, Haldeman, the author of the ‘ Vestiges of 
Creation, D’Omalius d’Halloy, Owen, Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Dr. 
Freke, Herbert Spencer, Naudin, Keyserling, Schauffhausen, Baden 
Powell, Wallace, Huxley, and Hooker. To these may be now possibly 
added those of Lyell, Fawcett, Lubbock, Mackie, Salter, Rupert 
J apa Blake, Biichner, Schvarez, Knox, Burke, Hutton, King, and many 
others. 

To accept, in 1862, the doctrine of the origin of species by creative fiat 
out of inorganic matter, is as unphilosophical as to believe in the theory 
- of earthquakes given out by the Muyscas of New Granada, that the earth 
is supported by pillars of guaiacum, on the shoulders of the deity Chibcha- 
cum, who, being tired, shifts the weight from one shoulder to another ;f or 
to the Egyptian theory, that the earth, during earthquakes, is tossed from 
one horn to another of a gigantic cow.{ Such theories are fast dis- 
appearing in the minds of those who, with Comte, “‘ substitute the study of 
laws for that of causes, the how for the why.” 

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
Micro.uEstTEs. 


Monography of the Geological Survey. 


Dear Sir,— Will you be kind enough to inform me, through your Maga- 
zine, if the plates to Monograph I. of the Memoirs of the Geological Sur- 
vey are issued or likely to be issued soon? The Monograph itself (on 
Pierygotus) is published without a word of notice as to when the plates 
are to be published, although they are referred to in the body of the paper. 

It seems to me there is a great want of energy about the Government 
Geological Survey in the matter of the publication of their Decades and 
Monographs. On the covers of the work alluded to it is constantly an- 
nounced that “ Other Decades are in the press ;” whilst years elapse be- 
tween the publication of two small Decades. Were the undertaking car- 


* List from Darwin, ‘Origin of Species,’ 3rd edition, 1861, p. xiii. : ‘ Historical 
Sketch of the recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species.” 

T Bollaert, ‘ Antiquities and Ethnology of South America.’ 

¢ Pouchet, ‘ Pluralité des Races Humaiues.’ 

VOL. V. QR 


306 THE GEOLOGIST. 


ried out in the spirit of Sir Henry De la Beche’s preface to the first De- 
cade, paleontologists and naturalists generally would benefit very greatly 
by a work so remarkable for the beauty and accuracy of its figures and 
the completeness of its descriptions. 

T dare say most paleontologists would not object to receive one Decade 
or Monograph at the least every three months. 

T am, Sir, your most obedient servant, 
Rk. LecHMERE Guppy. 
Port of Spain, Trinidad, 19th June, 1862. 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 


Tn a few months—and how soon they will fly away!—the great show of the 
world’s industry, that daily attracts its tens of thousands of visitors, will 
have closed for ever, and have become lke many other beautiful things— 
an item of the oblivious past. As the dulcet sounds of music pass away 
and are never heard again, although fresh lips or fingers may bring forth 
other sounds as tender and as sweet, so from our eyes this exquisite vision 
will pass, and if in future years other and nobler displays shall take its 
place, this glorious scene will truly be no more. How much material of 
high interest for the geologist is there! as there is for the naturalist and 
ethnologist ; as there is for every thinking mind, for every inquiring intel- 
lect. In these notes it is not our intention to attempt to detail all the 
geology that may be learnt within those miles of walls, the catalogues show 
what a volume would be needed for this; nor is it our wish to fill our 
pages with expatiations on the wonderfulscenery. The work of the navvy 
and the mechanic, the work of the labourer and builder is the work that 
endures. We attempt to harvest in the fields of facts which other men 
have there recorded; facts written down for the present eccasion for their 
purposes; facts which we wish to gather for our science. We have mineral 
materials from all parts of the globe. Who has described them, figured 
them? Plants, trees, woods, animals, skins, bones, gems, and metals con- 
veying years of information to the student. Surely in these fields we may 
gather as much as we are able of such goodly seeds of knowledge. 

First, in walking through the courts, how many noble samples of our 
nation’s great sources of power and wealth, coal and iron, have we seen? 
Samples of many or of most of them we may have seen before, for 
they are of daily use, some or other hourly before us; but when have we 
seen such samples so instructively placed? Where have we seen them 
accompanied and illustrated by such instructive plans and sections P 

We have pondered long ow we should best place these various matters 
before our readers, and at last we have resolved to gather the good seed 
wherever we can find it, and to take it as it stands, to gather it as it is, 
and to store it in our volume for everybody's use. This we must do, or 
lose it altogether. Our readers may thrash it, grind it, do what they will 
with it; but unless we bring it in it will perish thriftless in the field where 
it stands. What we intend to do, then, is to take note of whatever is 
valuable as we meet it, we shall not attempt more. As we find good facts 
we shali write them down—ay, in the Exhibition itself—and send them, 
then and there, direct to our printers. 

Minerat Resources oF Tasmanta.—The bold greenstone and basaltic 
mountains of Tasmania, formerly known as Van Diemen’s Land, their 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 307 


summits capped for many months in the year with snow, form striking 
objects from whatever quarter the island is approached. ‘The central part 
consists of a table-land, averaging 3000 feet above the sea, and on which 
are seven lakes, in size from 2500 to 50,000 acres, and in the aggregate 
equal to 112,000 acres of fresh water. These lakes form the sources of 
many considerable rivers. 

The undulating country between the lofty table-land and the sea is 
covered with forests of gigantic trees, extending from the hill-tops down 
to the water’s edge. The Tasmanian Commissioners speak of the mineral 
resources of that island as encouraging hopes of great advantages, especially 
in respect of coal, of which numerous samples are exhibited from various 
localities,—coal being, indeed, very generally distributed throughout it ; 
time and the assistance of capitalists being all that is needed for its com- 
mercial development. The main part of the fuel used in Hobart Town is 
derived from the mines of New Town, and from the Tasman’s Peninsula; 
but it is generally believed that better beds exist in other districts. Public 
attention has been of late much directed to Mount Nicholas. The seam 
there locally known as the “‘ Kelly Moon seam” breaks out at a height of 
500 feet above the Break o’ Day Plains, about nine miles from Falkirk, 
and can be worked by an adit-level. The coal is highly bituminons, and is 
said to be well suited for steam, gas, and domestic purposes. The same seam 
crops out near Fingal, and other places. This coal-bed is believed to 
extend over an area of fourteen square miles on the north of the Break o’ 
Day Plains. Samples of bituminous coals are also exhibited from Douglas 
River and Long Point (6 ft. 10 in. thick), on the east coast; from Mersey 
River ; from Hamilton, about twenty miles distant, where a very good coal 
(4 ft. 6 in.) lies 40 feet deep. 

On the southern side of the island anthracite is abundant, and samples 
are shown from New Town, Tasman’s Peninsula, Adventure Bay in Bruni 
Island, and from Three Hut Point in D’Entrecasteaux Channel. The coal 


at Tasman’s Peninsula has been worked for twenty-five years, and the 


seam, 3 ft. 6 in. to 4 feet thick, is got at by a shaft 75 feet deep, and 
within 100 yards of the water’s edge. A new seam has been struck here, 
said to be of the highest quality. The coal formation of the south side of 
the island extends round the mouth of the Huon to South-west Cape. The 
iabours of Mr. Gould, the Government geologist, have of late been almost 
concentrated on the coal-bearing deposits, and a commission was appointed 
by the Parliament, in March last, for testing the comparative values of the 
products of the various localities. The metal collections comprise gold, 
which exists in various parts, especially in the Fingal district; but not, as 
far as is yet known, in anything like such richness as has made Australia 
and California such temptations for adventurers. 

To stimulate exploration, the Colonial Government has offered a reward 
of £20.000 for the discovery of a remunerative gold-field. There are abun- 
dance of quartz-reefs in the Fingal district, more or less auriferous, some of 
which will probably eventually pay for crushing. Galena and copper-ore 
have been found in different parts, but not hitherto in any considerable 
quantity. lIron-ore abounds all over the colony. At Ilfracombe, eight 
miles from the Tamar, there are immense masses of rich ore which will 
doubtless prove highly advantageous, in connection with the coal-fields of 
the east coast. It is said to be nearly identical with the brown hematite 
of Mittigong,in New South Wales. Count Strzelecki, in his excellent 
work on New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, draws a comparison 
between the agricultural capabilities of the two countries, from a considera- 
tion of the origins of their respective soils: the crystalline rocks, such as 


308 THE GEOLOGIST. 


granite, compared with the sedimentary rocks in New South Wales, being 
as 3 to 1, while in Tasmania they are as 7 to 1. Of rocks having more 
than 60 per cent. of lime as compared to rocks with less, the proportion in 
New South Wales is 4°1 to 1; in Tasmania the case is reversed, the pro- 
portion 1 to 3. Count Strzelecki attributes this difference to volcanic 
agencies, which have beenmore prevalent in Tasmania than in the Australian 
continent. Some specimens of serpentine veined with asbestos, from the 
Asbestos Hills, show themselves susceptible of a high degree of polish. 
Black and white marbles from the Florentine Valley and from Chudlegh 
are shown; and of building stones, specimens from numerous quarries are 
exhibited by Mr. Calder; there are also some grindstones of large size and 
fine quality, and some smaller ones said to be eminently suitable for glass- 
cutting. The beautiful marbles exhibited have hitherto only been used 
for making lime, but properly polished they will be well suited for internal 
architectural decorations. ‘Topazes are exhibited from Flinders Island. 

PreMBROKESHIRE ANTHRACITE.—From Broadmoor Colliery, near Tenby, 
and Landshipping Colliery, Haverford West (South Wales). Analysis :— 
Carbon 93. Hydrogen 3:08. Azote 54. Sulphur ‘68. Oxygen 1°67. 
Ash 1:03. The following is the order of the strata :— 


BROADMOOR. LANDSHIPPING. 


— 


. Argillaceous arenaceous shales with 
abundant nodules of ironstone. 


2. “Bright Vein,” about 4 ft. 6 in. of 
culm, of a clear bright aspect. 
3. “ Dunstone,” or Fire Clay. 
i. Yellow magnesian sandstone, or lime- 4. Yellow magnesian sandstone, with a 
stone. few bands of shales. 
2. “Rock Vein,” about 3 ft. of good 5. “Rock Vein,” about 2 ft. 6 in. of 
anthracite. good stone coal. 
3. Dunstone (Fire Clay). 6. Dunstone (Fire Clay). 
4. Argillaceous and arenaceous rock with 7. Dark argillaceous slate, or slaty earth. 
nodules of ironstone. 
5. “Low Vein,” 1 ft. 8 in. of inferior 
culm. 
6. Fire Clay. 
7. Hard siliceous rock with a few argil- 
Jaceous bands. 
8. Argillaceous slate with bands of iron- 
stone. 
9. “Timber Vein,” varying from 7 8. “Fimber Vein,” an anthracite 
to 10 feet thick.* seam varying from 6 to 8 feet. 
10. Fire Clay. 9. Dunstone (Fire Clay). 


10. “Little Vein,” J ft. 8 in, of culm. 

11. Dunstone (Fire Clay). : 

12. Compact argillaceous rock with some 

bands of iron-ore. 

13. Hard siliceous and calcareous rock 
about 2 feet. 

14. “ North Vein,” 1 feet 3 inches to 1 ft. 
6 in. of anthracite. 


There are several small seams of coal below the “Timber Vein,” the 
largest and most important of which are “‘the Lower Level” (=1 ft. 8 in.) 
and the Kilgetty (—1 ft. 8 in. to 4 feet), considered the best anthracite. 
The former is about 70 fathoms below the ‘“‘ Timber Vein,” and the latter 


* The beds printed in black letter are those of which samples are in the Exhibition. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 309 


about 45 fathoms still deeper. The entire basin is about 1500 feet in 
thickness, with about 20 seams, containing about 28 feet of anthracite coal 
“stone,” or smokeless fuel, and about 123 beds of ironstone, varying from 
1 to 4 inches of argillaceous iron-ore, averaging 30 per cent. of iron. 


(To be continued.) 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Gerotocicat Socrety or Lonpvon.—June 18, 1862.—1. ‘‘On the Mode 
of Formation of some of the River-valleys in the South of Ireland.” By 
Professor J. B. Jukes. 

Mr. Jukes’s paper contained a description of the physical structure of 
that part of the South of Ireland south of the limestone-plain that extends 
from Dublin to Galway Bay. He showed that the Rivers Shannon, 
Barrow, Nore, and Suir, after traversing this low ground, escaped to the 
sea by ravines worn through lofty hills of Old Red Sandstone and Lower 
Silurian rocks. He also instanced the rivers Blackwater, Lee, and Bandon 
as each suddenly deserting the low longitudinal valleys through which they 
had run for many miles, and turning at right angles down ravines of Old 
Red Sandstone, notwithstanding the fact of the longitudinal valleys being 
continued with no apparent obstruction to the course of the rivers. He 
showed the connection of these lateral ravines with the coming of strong 
brooks from the higher ridges on the north into the iongitudinal valleys, 
and also that these brooks probably produced the ravines, having first 
begun to erode them over a surface above the present ridges, and before 
the formation of the longitudinal valleys. 

He considered the fact proved, that the present “form of the ground” 
in the South of Ireland was produced by atmospheric erosion on dry land ; 
and that the hmestone ground was low because the rock had been dissolved 
chemically as well as eroded mechanically ; and that its surface had sunk 
to a lower level than the other rocks, like that of a glacier melting in its 
bed. He proposed to extend this explanation generally to all dry land. 

2. “Experimental Researches on the Granites of [reland.—Part ITT. 
On the Granites of Donegal.” By the Rev. Professor 8. Haughton. 

The author described in detail the geographical position, physical struc- 
ture, geological relations, and the chemical and mineralogical composition 
of the granite of Donegal, which consists of four minerals—quartz, ortho- 
clase, oligoclase, and black mica, with perhaps an unknown paste besides. 
The oligoclase affords evidence of the probable identity of the granite of 
Donegal with that of Northern Scotland and of Norway. The author also 
alluded to his success in obtaining a formula for the determination of the 
proportions of four minerals in a compound rock, from the relative specific 
gravities of the mass and of its constituents. 

3. “On a Stalk-eyed Crustacean from the Coal-measures.” By Pro- 
fessor T. H. Huxley. 

This specimen, in an ironstone nodule, is crushed laterally, and exhibits 
a side view of a Crustacean, similar in all essential respects to Pygocephalus. 
The chief interest attaching to the specimen lies in the confirmation which 
it affords of the author’s interpretation of the specimens on which the 
genus was founded. He draws the attention of collectors to the occurrence 
of Crustaceans of such high rank in Carboniferous rocks. 


310 TOE GEOLOGIST. 


4. “On the Premolar Teeth of Diprotodon, and on a New Species of 
that Genus from Queensland in Australia.” By Professor Huxley. 

Among a collection of fossil bones from the Darling Down district, in 
the possession of Dr. Cotton, F.G.8., the author has observed a portion of 
the right ramus of the lower jaw of Diprotodon, and parts of the right and 
left upper jaws, with the anterior grinders in place, of distinct individuals. 
Hence he was enabled to offer some observations on the dentition of the 
genus, and more particularly upon the characters of the premolars. For 
the form which he finds distinct from Diprotodon australis he proposes 
the name of D. minor. 

5. “On the Old Red Sandstone of Fifeshire.”” By James Powrie, F.G.S. 

Having again examined some sections of the Old Red at Whiteness, near. 
Arbroath, and elsewhere, the author is satisfied of a local unconformity of 
the Upper on the Lower Old Red, but that no other locality in Forfarshire 
exhibits this want of conformity; and neither in Fifeshire nor Perthshire 
does the author find a section distinct enough to exhibit such a break in 
the series. Mr. Powrie alluded to the yellow sandstone of Dura Den, and 
observed that though it is unconformable to the red sandstone beneath, yet 
he believes that it belongs to the Old Red Series. He proceeded to notice 
the fossil fishes of Dura Den, of which he says there are six well-marked 
genera (including Glyptolepis) with about seven or eight species. 

6. “On some Upper Coal-measures, containing a bed of Limestone, at 
Catrine, in Ayrshire.” By E. W. Binney, F.R.S. 

Some red and purple strata near Catrine, underlying the Permian 
breccia of Ballochmoyle, were referred to in 1856 by the author. He has 
since revisited the locality, and finds that these strata at Ballochmoyle 
Braes, Catrine, and Sorn represent a coal-field as high as any in the 
English series; in fact, similar to those at Ardwick near Manchester, 
Uffington, Leebotwood near Shrewsbury, Buxtaby near Nuneaton, and 
Lane End Potteries. Mr. Binney referred to the observations made by 
Mr. Ralph Moore, and by Geikie and Murchison, and pointed out how far 
he differs from them. Mr. Moore gives 565 fathoms for the whole series 
in Ayrshire; the author finds reason to add nearly 300 fathoms of Car- 
boniferous strata (not productive of coal) to the above estimate. 

7. “On the Geological Structure of the Southern Grampians.” By 
Professor James Nicol. 

The author stated that in 1844, and in subsequent years, he indicated 
that the Silurian strata of the South of Scotland are represented in the 
North by the metamorphosed or so-called primary strata; and he pro- 
ceeded to point out that the object of the present communication is to ex- 
amine the relation which the three great formations, Clay-slate, Mica-slate, 
and Gneiss bear one to the other as regular constituents of the crust of the 
earth, and especially in certain parts of the Scottish Highlands, as illus- 
trated by sections observed by himself. These he correlated with what is 
seen in other parts of the Highlands. 

Contrasting his published sections with the corresponding ones given by 
Sir R. I. Murchison and Mr. Geikie, he observes that, though represented 
as maintaining the identity of the gneiss of the west coast with certain 
mica- or chlorite-slates, yet he has in former papers, and in his published 
map, always regarded them as being identical only so far as both belong 
to the great series of metamorphic formations inferior to the red sandstone 
and quartzite, but still as distinct formations with peculiar features, and, 
it may be, of widely different age. 

8. “On some Natural Casts of Foot-prints from the Wealden of the 
Isle of Wight, and of Swanage.” By S. H. Beckles, F.R.S. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. oll 


Some of these natural casts are nearly 35 feet long, indicating not merely 
the imprints of the toes, but also of the sloping metatarsals. The animal 
must have been of great size and weight, leaving deep imprints. Little 
trifid imprints of only 3 inches in length, with a stride of about 13 inches, 
occurred to the author also in the Isle of Wight. He has found, also, 
trifids of the usual size in the Wealden of Swanage Bay. Mr. Beckles 
argued that other Dinosaurians besides the Iguanodou have left these 
track-marks; and he stated that from the first he has been accustomed to 
associate them with the various phalangial bones so abundant in the 
Wealden. 

9. “Geological Notes on Zanzibar.” By Richard Thornton, Esq. 

From the coast to the coast-range (600 to 1300 feet high), the country 
consists of a series of strata with an easterly dip, namely (from above 
downwards), coral-limestone, sandstone, yellow shale, and sandstone with 
plant-remains. The mountain Kilimanjaro is formed chiefly of volcanic 
rocks. Whiie and altered sandstones, with easterly dip, are met with also 
in the Massai Plain. 

10. “On a Section at Junction-road, Leith.’”” By W. Carruthers, F.L.S. 

The author stated that in the section of clay, sand, and gravel near 
Leith, described by Mr. Geikie as part of a raised beach elevated since the 
period of the Roman occupation, not only have medieval pottery and 
tobacco-pipes been found in the pottery-bearing deposit described by Mr. 
Geikie, but a medieval jar has been met with in the sand beneath. The 
so-called “Roman” pottery was stated by the author to be of medieval 
age, on the independent authority of Messrs. Birch and Franks, of the 
British Museum; and he believes that the beds in question are mainly of 
late and artificial formation; he does not, however, argue from this that 
there is no evidence of a late upheaval of the central part of Scotland. 

_ 11. “On the Death of Fishes in the Sea during the Monsoon.” By Sir 
William Denison, Governor of Madras, etc. 

Steaming between Mangalore and Cananore, on the west coast of India, 
the author found that for some time after the south-west monsoon the sea 
was offensive with dead fish, killed by the great mass of fresh water poured 
into the sea during the season of the monsoon. 

Specimens of Elephas Melitensis and Myorus Melitensis, obtained from 
bone-caves in Malia by Captain Spratt, were exhibited by Dr. H. Fal- 
coner. 

Mancuester Gerotocicat Society.— May 27.—Mr. Binney read “ An 
Account of the Excursion to Todmorden.” On reaching Todmorden, the 
party proceeded along that beautiful valley to Gauxholme. over sirata 
belonging to the lower portions of the millstone grit. At the entrance of 
Dulesgate strong gritstone rock was seen dipping at a considerable angle 
N.W., and exhibiting shakes and faults. On Pendie Hill, beyond Burnley, 
and at Timtwisile, near Glossop, are two natural sections which can be 
pretty well measured, especially the latter, where, between Rhodes Wood 
Quarry in the valley, and the thick bed of rock at Tintwistle Nar on the 
hill, are from 700 to 800 feet of strata. The whole of the deposits between 
the limestone shale and the upper millstone of the Lancashire geologisis 
(the Brooksbottom Sandstone) may be taken at 1200 feet in thickness. 
These beds probably attain their greatest developmezt in Lancashire, 
Yorkshire, and Cheshire. Returning again to the Gauxholme Rock. asmall 
seam of coal was observed, and at a further distance up the vailey another - 
bed of a few inches. From the entrance of the valley to the quarry on 
the right of the rouie (probably at the base of the Brooksbottom series of 
coals) cannot be here less than 1000 feet. The Haslingden flags are then 


312 THE GEOLOGIST. 


seen, but not of great thickness or good quality. Then the “rough rock,” 
with the Feather-edge coal, 14 to 16 inches thick, lying imbedded in its 
upper portion. Above this were the ‘* Foot Coal,” the ‘ Salts,” and the 
«Spanish Juice” seams. The “Gannister’’ coal was next met, 5 feet 6 
inches in thickness, and containing ‘‘ bullions ” in the coal, the same as the 
Spaw Clough, Town Head, and Carry Heyes Mines of Burnley, with 
nodules in the black shales of the roof full of Aviculopectens, Goniatites, 
etc. About ten yards above is a small seam of a few inches, and then comes 
the “forty yards coal,” twenty inches in thickness, with a fire-clay floor 
worked for bricks and tiles; further up is another small seam of a few 
inches, and then the upper or “Old Lawrence” series of flagstones. To. 
the left of the quarry, the strata are thrown up by a fault of fully a 
hundred yards, and the Rochdale coal is wrought by a tunnel through it. 

The Moor was then crossed near the Flag Quarry; the party next 
passing the fine cliffs of “rough rock” above Portsmouth. In the 
valley a cutting of the Burnley Railway has exposed an interesting section 
of some of the Brooksbottom coal measures, showing a small fault; and 
beyond Messrs. Fielden’s mill some old workings in the Gannister coal, 
which is there brought up by a fault of 400 to 500 yards cast, were seen. 

2. “Communications respecting Safety Lamps.” By Mr. C. Bass, and 
Messrs. J. Abbott and Co. 

3. ‘ Descriptions of Water-Balance Machines used for Winding Coal, 
Tronstone, etc.,in South Wales.” By J. Evans, Esq., Inspector of Mines 
for South Wales. : 

4. “ Explanation of Model of New Safety Cage for Miners.” By the 
President. 

Mr. Farrimond exhibited a specimen of Sternbergia, and a rounded 
piece of white quartz, found in the centre of the Lower Mountain Mine, 
Dunkenhalgh Park, near Church. Mr. Binney remarked that these pebbles 
were once thought to be rare in coal, and in twenty years he had found 
but two of them; but from Dunkenfield Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Ray had 
brought a barrowful, and those were now in the Society’s Museum. 
A valuable collection of fossil fish from South America was presepvted to 
the Society by Mr. Eddowes Bowman. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


ANTHRACITE IN Sitvurtan Rocxs.—In the abstract of the lecture “ On 
Coal” at the Royal Institution, printed in our last number, Mr. Waring- 
ton Smyth is stated to have discovered anthracite coal at Laxey Mine in 
the midst of ancient schists, probably Lower Silurian. 

This is not the first case of the observation of seams of bituminous 
matter in strata older than the coal-measures. We have long had by us a 
pamphlet on the occurrence of anthracite in the Silurian strata of Cavan, 
by Dr. Whitty, of Dublin, who brought that instance under the notice of 
the British Association and the Dublin Geological Society, in 1854. In 
that year, Dr. Whitty visited the townland of Kill, a mile west of Kilna- 
leck, in Cavan. The rock throughout the district he describes as belong- 
ing to the “Grauwacké Slate formation,’, having an average strike of 
57° K.W.E. (true meridian), and a dip at the place in question 80° 8.H. 
“This,” he says, “is not the true coal-formation, as every geologist knows, 
yet a bed of soft anthracite or culm occurs here, about four feet in thick- 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 313 


ness, in a dark grey clay-slate, having the same dip-strike as the accom- 
panying rocks.” The “‘ Grauwacké” of this part of the country consists 
generally of stone-grey rock, alternating with beds of slate; the thickness 
of the masses of each kind being very variable, in some cases a few inches 
only of slate or hard rock, in others from fifty to a hundred feet of either. 
Some of the hard masses contain pebbles, usually about the size of a pea, 
but often as much as one or two inches in diameter. Occasionally the rock 
is massive, and so much altered by metamorphic action, that were it not 
for the pebbles it might be mistaken for a greenstone. 

A case similar to this was reported by Professor Harkness to the British 
Association in 1852, “ at Rattenside, near Greskin, about four miles above 
the Beatock station on the Caledonian Railway; the anthracite is seen in 
the Evan Water, and this can be traced E.N.E. to Hartfell, and from 
thence into Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire.” Of the rock which contains it 
he says, ‘‘ This slate extends E.N.E. and W.S.W. It is seen at Stobo, in 
Peeblesshire, and in the summit cutting of the Caledonian Railway, where 
it shows great thickness. From thence it extends westward through 
Lanarkshire and the north-east of Dumfriesshire to Cairn Ryan, in Wig- 
tonshire.” 

Dr. Whitty thinks, that ‘as those Silurian or Grauwacké rocks of the 
Pentland Hills and south of Scotland are admitted to be the counterpart 
of our Grauwacké rocks in the North of Ireland, and are in fact a con- 
tinuation of the same formation, it is more than probable that the anthra- 
cite of the county of Cavan is a production of the bed in Scotland, and 
extends all the way between them, through the counties of Down, Ar- 
magh, and Monaghan.” A trial pit was sunk by Dr. Whitty at Kell, and 
a specimen of the anthracite analysed: its composition being carbon 
77°64, water 4°35, ash 18°01 (=100°00). ‘It contains no bitumen, and 
therefore is ill-suited for ordinary domestic purposes, but would answer 
well for burning lime or bricks and drying malt, when mixed with a small 
portion of bituminous coal or turf to ignite it. Once made red, it gives 
out a powerful heat, and continues it a great length of time. It will also 
be found most efficient for smiths’ work.” 

It is well worth while to keep these facts before the geological world ; 
and it should not be forgotten that in the south of Scotland graptolites 
are very prevalent in the anthracite, or rather in the anthracite shales. 

FourtHer Notres on Human‘Skutis From Hrarnery Burn Cave, 
WearpDatt, DurHam; witH A Noticr oF THE RiveER-BED SKELETON 
From LEtcestER.—lI have been asked to give a few supplementary remarks 
on the fragmentary human remains from this cave, in addition to those 
made by Professor Huxley (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 204). The observa- | 
tions made by him led him to express an opinion that the Weardale re- 
mains belonged ‘‘ to the same race of rather small and lightly-made men, 
with prominent superciliary ridges and projecting nasal bones,” as the 
Muskham, Towyn-y-Capel, Sennen, Borris, and Blackwater skulls. In the 
spirit of these observations I cordially concur. 

Particular description of the remains being, however, requisite, I pro- 
ceed to remark that no perfect skull has hitherto been found in the 
Heathery Burn Cave. The most perfect, though not the most charac- 
teristic, 1s the one of which Mr. Mackie has given an excellent drawing (p. 
201), and which I shall denominate A. Another skull is only represented 
by the os frontis and a small part of the parietal, and is far more striking. 
I name this B for facility of description. 

The calvarium, or vertex of a skull marked A, is not that of an aged in- 
dividual. A large part of the frontal suture is persistent. The frontal 


VOL. V. 28 


314 THE GEOLOGIST. 


region is low, but not markedly retrocedent. An even curve is continued 
backwards to immediately behind the coronal suture, when the same 
‘‘ nost-coronal” depression is visible, as in the Mewslade and East- 
ham skulls. The points of attachment of the temporal muscle are scarcely 
visible. The coronal suture is, however, complex at the spot where it 
crosses the temporal attachments,—a character on which Messrs. Thurnam 
and Davis have laid stress in British skulls. The parietal tubers are mo- 
derately prominent. The superciliary ridges are not unduly developed, 
and the fractured condition of the skull warrants us in affirming that the 
frontal sinuses were small. As far as measurement can be made, the 
length from the glabella to the apex of the lambdoidal suture is 7 inches ; 
the breadth at the parietal tubers, 53 inches; at the coronal suture, 45 
inches ; above the orbits, 33 inches. <A fragment of right occipital condyle 
probably belonged to the same young individual; a fragment of the mas- 
toid bone appertained to an elder person. 

The fragment marked B is a most striking relie of antiquity. It is the 
frontal bone, with much of the right parietal attached: the pieces of which 
I have succeeded in joining together. The close similarity of it to the 
fragmentary skull from Plymouth, which Professor Busk has described, 
and I have figured from his plate (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 212), must strike 
every observer. Unlike, however, the Plymouth skull, the superciliary 
ridges are markedly conspicuous. The retrocession of the forehead is very 
peculiar, and strongly resembles that in the skulls from Sennen and Musk- 
ham. Slight traces of the frontal suture can be seen. The frontal sinuses 
are present, though small. No traces of the post-coronal depression are 
visible. It is much to be regretted that no other pieces have been pre- 
served of this curious skull. Many fragments, chiefly of parietal bones, 
were also obtained ; but their condition precludes an opinion as to their 
nature. The vertebre and bones of the extremities did not offer any cha- 
racters calling for especial notice. 

I believe that the fragment marked B was the skull which Mr. J. El- 
hott, the careful explorer of the cave, stated* ‘‘may have been that of one 
of the principal tenants of the cave, and which probably devoured the 
others.” This evidence of ‘‘a tolerably large animal” rather appears to 
be that of a human being with forehead “ villanously low,” and whose 
cranial characters were so striking as almost to excuse the error into which 
Mr. Elliott was unintentionally led. 

The skull from Leicester is in good condition, and retains much of 
its animal matter. It exhibits the even oval contour characteristic of 
the existing type of Englishmen. By the smallness of the mastoid pro- 
cesses, the slenderness of the zygomata and the slight degree in which 
the surface is pitted with muscular depressions, I conjecture it to have 
belonged to a female, and by the position of the wisdom teeth (m 3) in the 
alveoli, the individual probably did not exceed eighteen years of age. The 
following is a table of the principal admeasurements :— 


Inches. 
Longitudinal diameter A : sch ee heel 
Parietal diameter : g ; . z ag 8) 
Frontal diameter. : ; A 5 ‘ Say Om 
Vertical diameter : 3 ; : ; . 4g 
Intermastoid arch : - : ; j go liges 
Intermastoid dine g j c ! fe) Birt 
Occipito-frontal arch . : : : a ae, be 
Horizontal periphery . 3 3 5 : . 193 


* “ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 36. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 315 


The slope of the frontal and parietal bones is even and round, the 
occiput being full and globular, without any sign however of the ‘“ kumbe- 
kephalic ” backward prolongation. 

Comparison of the base of the skull with that in a well-formed Euro- 
pean of about the same age, exhibits the prognathism of the maxilla more 
distinctly. The incisor teeth are rather more oblique, and the extero- 
internal breadth of the canines is greater than in the majority of existing 
European crania. The molar teeth do not exceed in size the average 
European proportions. Many of them were afflicted during life with 
earies to an alarming extent. The frontal bone is moderately arched, the 
glabella prominent, with no sign of the supraciliary ridges. All the 
sutures exhibit the normal configuration. 

The ordinary junction of the alisphenoid with the parietal is present on 
both sides the skull. The mastoids are small, and the supramastoid ridge 
is undeveloped. No peculiarity exists in the form or position of the 
occipital foramen or of the condyles. The nasal bones are well-developed 
and rather salient. 

The lower jaw does not exhibit any marked peculiarity. 

The appearance of the lower half of the supraoccipital bone is very 
different from that of the Muskham skull. The surfaces for attachment of 
muscles are less pronounced ; the furrow for the insertion of the obliquus 
superior rouscle is less deep; the crest, and the superior and inferior 
linee semicirculares are less developed, and the occipital protuberance, or 
inion, is less distinct. A small paroccipital tubercle is visible on the right 
side. The upper half of the supraoccipital is full and globular, and in the 
rather complex lambdoid suture are at least seven wormian bones, none of 
which however deserve the term interparietal. 

An examination of the nearly perfect spinal column did not disclose any 
peculiar characteristic. he bones of the extremities indicate a youthful 
individual, the epiphyses being in many cases separate. 

The animal remains said to be associated with this skull were Bos 
primigenius and EHquus caballus. 

The following table is merely offered as a temporary and provisional 
arrangement. Many of the sections do not represent distinct races, and 
all the skulls from the river-bed deposits offer many points of analogy with 
each other. ‘lhe difficulty of laying down any general system can only be 
appreciated by the practical inquirer. In the meantime, the evidences 
appear to be capable of arrangement in something like the following 
order :— 


1. Dolichocephalic. 
A. Forehead retrocedent. 
a. Superciliary ridges very large, continuous over nasal suture. Neanderthal. 
b. Superciliaries large. a..Foramen magnum abnormal. Muskham. 
8. Foramen magnum normal ? 
Sennen, Nether Urquhart. 
Heathery Burn, “ B.” 
ce. Superciliaries small. 
Plymouth. 
Heathery Burn, “A.” 
Blackwater. 
Borris (bed of Nore). 
Engis. 
B. Forehead moderately developed. 
a. Superciliaries small. 
Mewslade. 
Eastham. 
Lewcester. 


316 THE GEOLOGIST. 


2. Brachycephalic, 
/ a. Superciliaries large. 
Plau. 
Montrose. 
b. Superciliaries small. 
Etruria, O. 


: CHARLES CaRTER BLAKE. 

Fossits FRoM TREFLACH QuarRy.—Dear Sir,—In the bed of shale 
above the mountain limestone of the Treflach Quarries, I found two fossils 
which I find figured in Phillips’s Manual as Gryphea ineurva, Lias foss., 
and G. cymbium, Lower Oolite foss. Can you, or any of your readers, 
account for it?—Yours truly, H. M. G. Wyruim, Whittington, Oswestry, 
27th June. 

SHarks’ TretH At Panama.—The Miocene deposits at Monkey Hill, 
near Panama, have afforded to the geological labours of W. Duprée, Hsq., 
M.D., F.R.G.S., three sharks’ teeth, as well as various species of fossil 
shells. The sharks’ teeth belong to the Carcharodon megalodon, Agass. ; 
Hemipristis serra, Agass. ; and a species of Lamna, or Porbeagle. 

The Carcharodon teeth are rather smaller than the average of English 
specimens from the Red Crag ; the Hemipristis are in no way distinct from 
the remains which are found in the ‘‘molasse” of Switzerland, Piedmont, 
and Germany. 

I have not identified the Lamna with any known species. In the breadth 
of its base it differs from any tooth I have seen, and the section accords 
with none of those in the British Museum, or in Agassiz’ ‘ Poissons 
Fossiles.’ 

The specific name of ewrybathrodon, from etpvs, broad, and BaOpay, base, 
might be proposed, but it would be very injudicious to found a species on 
one solitary tooth. It is apparently the second tooth in the under jaw, 
and the teeth which were associated with it in the same jaw might be 
identified with those of known fossil species. ‘The specimens are now de- 
posited in the British Museum.—Cuaries Carter Brake. 

Bituminous Sanpstone.—A bituminous sandstone, (of which a speci- 
men has been transmitted to the Editor) has been found in sinking a shaft 
in an ironstone pit near Hogganfield, 3 miles eastward from Glasgew. 
It occurs at the depth of about 50 fathoms, and is 3 feet in thickness ; 
being overlaid by successive bituminous shales, thin sandstone beds, lime- 
stones, etc. 

The limestone (Lower Carboniferous) containing Spirifera bisulcata, 
and other fossils, is indurated to an extent equal to compact greenstone ; 
the shales have lost their schistose character, being quite friable or in a 
state of dry clay, having been deprived more or less of their original colour 
and assuming the appearance of fire-clays; the sandstone beds are greatly 
indurated (kingle), and so hard and compact as to approach quartzite of a 
highly crystalline character, while iron pyrites are diffused through the’ 
strata in streaks. 

At about 40 fathoms a band of marine fossils occurs, partly in the shale 
and partly in clay-ironstone nodules accompanying it; these consist of 
Actinocrinus crassus and other crinoids, several species of Productus and 
of Aviculopecten,—A. arenosus, A. granosus, ete. 

No trap-dykes or overflows are found in such close proximity as to 
make one suppose them to be the direct agents in these results, and these 
effects must have been caused by heated gaseous bodies, or steam, in 
a similar manner as a thick coal-seam at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, has 
been found completely coked by the same agency. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. : 317 


What had become of the bituminous and gaseous matter was in doubt 
till the discovery of this sandstone showed it; its coarse porous character 
facilitating the impregnation. When under red heat in a crucibleit flamed, 
losing 20 per cent. of weight ; but remaining compact, and becoming quite 
white. A professional chemist in Glasgow reports it as yielding only five 
gallons of oil to the ton, it therefore probably contains other volatile matter 
of a light and gaseous description. 

This rock would not pay for the working under twenty gallons per ton ; 
and from the greater difficulty of extraction from sandstone, a bituminous 
shale, such as the Torbane mineral, though it only yielded twenty gallons 
to the ton, would be equal in value to sandstone giving upwards of 
thirty. 

A Seiler bituminous rock has been found in two other localities, 
within about two miles of this; one of these is in a less stratified state, the 
mineral tar oozing from it, of a black colour, the other is a hard ‘“ kingle,”’ 
of a brown colour, in close proximity to split or hard coal, from 50 to 
60 fathoms down.—W. R. S., Glasgow. 

Human Remains In AtLtuvicem.—The alluvium of the Kennet isa well- 
marked deposit, and forms large and valuable water-meadows. Dr. Buck- 
land, who records human remains in it, says it is “‘much mixed with 
minute crystals of selenite and a small quantity of carbonate of lime, and 
abounds with the bones and horns of oxen, red-deer, roebucks, horses, wild 
boars, and beavers. A human skull, of high antiquity, has also been found 
in it, at a depth of many feet, at the contact of the peat with a substratum 
of shell-marl. It was accompanied by rude instruments of stone.* Along 
the northern edge of this peat-bog, there is a considerable deposit of marl, 
mixed with calcareous tufa . . . from two to ten feet in thickness, and 
frequently interstratified with beds of peat, varying from six inches to 
three or four feet in thickness.” In the neighbourhood of Newbury the 
lower marl contains mammalian remains, which are said to be more plenti- 
ful towards the edge of the valley. The list of these comprises :— Bos pri- 
migenius, B. longifrons, Cervus capreolus, C. elaphus, Kquus, Sus scrofa, 
Canis lupus, Lutra vulgaris, Ursus speleus, Castor Huropeus, Arvicola 
(water-rat). The peat is dug in places for fuel, and, with shell-marl, but 
not for manure: in it are found remains of oak, alder, willow, fir, birch, 
hazel, and of mosses, reeds, and equiseta. 


P 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


In a former number of the ‘Geologist’ (vol. v. p. 74) the discovery of 
the presence of rubidium and cesium in the mica of Zinnwald, Bohemia, 
was mentioned. Since then, M. E. Seybel, in his extensive chemical 
manufactory at Liesing, having submitted 800 lbs. of this mica to chemical 
treatment, has obtained from it carbonate of lithium, and above 5 ounces 
of the chlorurets of rubidium and cesium. This Zinnwald mica, con- 
taining these metals in larger proportions than any other substance at 
present known (nearly 3 per cent.), may prove particularly adapted for the 


* See Dr. Buckland’s paper, Geol. Transact., 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 120; Rupert 
Jones’s ‘ Lecture on the Geology of Newbury,’ 1854; and ‘ Memoirs of the Geological 
Survey: Explanation of Sheet 12,’ by Messrs. Bristow and Whitaker, 1862. 


318 THE GEOLOGIST. 


preparation of considerable quantities of these peculiar substances, if 
submitted to proper chemico-technical manipulation.* ea ame ahi 

Professor Schneider has noted the presence of formic acid, which is of 
extremely rare occurrence in mineral waters, in two of the springs at 
Carlsbrunn in Austrian Silesia. These belong to the numerous group 
of ferruginous acidulated springs, with alicaline and earthy salts, scattered 
throughout the Sudetian mountains. Their temperature is not above 625 
to 7° 0 C.; they are nearly saturated with carbonic acid, and contain 7-04, 
parts of solid substances (Carbonate of Iron, 0'286 per cent.; Carb. Lime, 
5-053; Carb. Magnesia, 0°875 ; together with very minute proportions of 
alkaline salts) in 10.000 parts of water. 

M. Bulliot, the President of the Société Eduenne, states the probable 
existence, in the lac of Ambléon, in the mountainous district of the Rhone 
between Belley and Lhuis, of ancient remains like those of the Swiss 
Lakes. This district, until a few years since, was all but inaccessible, and 
is now traversed only by a narrow road across the precipices. The lake 
is little more than a mile in circumference, but its elevation is not less 
than 2000 feet above the level of the sea; while still higher above it 
towers the mountain of Innimond. Under the water may be clearly seen 
portions of fir-trees ; some erect, others crosswise, and apparently forming 
a platform. ‘The people of the district, when the water is low, fasten ropes 
to these timbers and draw them out with their oxen for use. Jtis remark- 
able that they consist entirely of pine, a tree which no longer exists on 
the mountain; some of the timbers are placed at least a yard apart, and 
have a diameter of 8 to 10 inches. Whether these are the remains of a 
forest, or of lacustrine dwellings, only actual excavations can determine. 
It is said that there are similar remains in other lakes in the district. 


REVIEWS. 


On the Zoology of Ancient Europe. By A. Newton, M.A. 
London: Macmillan, 1862. 


This is a report, in pamphlet form, of a lecture given in the spring of 
the present year, before the Cambridge Philosophical Society. It is dis- 
cursive, but pleasant, and full of excellent material and remarks. 

The subject is one of great interest, but which its title scarcely expresses, 
as if in no way designates the age—that immediate one between the geolo- 
gical and historical—to which the author chiefly restricts his remarks. 
The notices of the geographical ranges of Carnivora, of the Swiss Lake 
dwellings, and the Danish Kjokkenméddings are very good; but perhaps 
the part that will be most attractive to our readers will be the account of 
relics found in the meres of Norfolk, of probably similar pile-houses to 
those of the Swiss lakes, although on a small scale. 

A few miles from Thetford, are a number of natural ponds, or meres, 
varying in size, from twenty roods to fifty acres. Many of these are situated 
in the parishes of Kast and West Wretham, and one of them, known as 


Ft Erocketiigs Imper. Acad. Vienna, March 29, 1862. Communicated by Count 
arsenal, 


t Proceedings Imper. Acad. Vienna, April 8, 1862. Communicated by Count 
Marschall. 


REVIEWS. 319 


the West Mere, five or six acres in extent, was drained of the waters in 
1851, by the proprietor, Mr. Birch, of Wretham Hall. 

In this mere there was ordinarily about four feet of water, and beneath 
it about eight feet of soft black mud, partly held in suspension, and requir- 
ing to be removed in scoops. When this mud was being cleared out, a 
ereat number of bones were discovered, chiefly deposited, as from its semi- 
liquid nature might have been expected, at the bottom. They were nearly 
all those of the red deer (Cervus elaphus), and of the now extinct long-faced 
ox (Bos longifrons). 

Near the centre of the mere, lying below the black mud, was found a 
ring, or circular bank, of fine white earth, outside of which, the bottom of 
the mere was so soft and deep as to be impassable. This ring, or bank, was 
about twenty or thirty feet across, a foot wide, and about four feet in 
height, and near its inner circumference a deep hole, or well, was marked 
out by a circle of stout stakes. There was also, near by, the remains of a 
flint wall and traces of a rude ladder. 

The deer’s antlers and other bones had many of them cut-marks of rude 
tools. Many flint-disks, seemingly resembling what the Danish antiqua- 
ries call sling-stones, are said to have been found in this and other meres, 
but none of them have been preserved. 

A few years later, 1856, the largest of these meres, having an area of 
forty-eight acres, was emptied and cleaned out, and during the operation 
was visited by Sir Charles Bunbury, who has recorded his observations in 
the Geological Society’s Journal (vol. xii.). Sir Charles incidentally states 
the presence of numerous posts of oak-wood, shaped and pointed by ha- 
man art, standing erect in the mud. 

M. Troyon, in his ‘ Habitations Lacustres,’ recognizes the similarity of 
these Norfolk antiquities to the Pile-buildings of his own country. 

These few remarks are sufficient to show the interest this pamphlet 
possesses. 


Proceedings of Geologists’ Association, No. 8. 


This is a thick part of some eighty pages, got up in better manner and 
under better editorship than any number we have yet seen. It contains 
moreover some good papers, while the additional lists of new members 
show that the Association is making headway. 

We wish it well. We have always done so; and if we have sometimes 
sounded a note of warning or condemnation, there has been no more ma- 
lice or illwill in it than in the paternal advice of a father to his son. It 
was through this journal the Association had birth, and it is not likely 
therefore but that we should ever feel the liveliest interest in it. We do 
not think, however, it has yet settled down to its proper work. From its 
geographical locality, and by its inherent construction, it is destined sooner 
or later to become the Metropolitan Field Club. The district round Lon- 
don is a wide and uncultivated field. Strange as this statement may seem 
yet it is true, and it will be far better for the Geologists’ Association to 
organize themselves for this work than to be merely content with simple 
day’s pleasurings in some far-distant towns. No doubt a great deal of good 
is to be got from looking at the blue flat shore of ganlt at Folkestone, or 
picking up hamper-loads of phosphate-nodules at Cambridge, and a trip to 
the Malverns would be an admirable occasion for a delightful picnic ; 
but no good work is done for our science by these desultory excursions. 
Let the Association, however, take the Ordnance maps, and construct a 
geological map of the London area; let them make sections across the 
London Basin from east to west, from north to south; let them take the 


320 THE GEOLOGIST. 


elevations of the Drift-beds and collect the fossils from the valley-gravels, 
and what a fund of valuable material in a short time they would get toge- 
ther! Excursions to places round London might be made weekly, and 
then occasionally they could journey further afield to compare what they 
had done in their own area with what was to be seen and learnt in an- 
other. They would thus be doing good service, and every individual mem- 
ber so engaged would be fitting himself for an active fellowship of the 
Geological Society, or for carrying on scientific work in foreign lands. 

These remarks have been forced upon us by the desultory character of 
the number before us. First,we have a paper “On Coal,” by Professor Mor- 
ris; and an admirable paper it is, although in some points we differ as to 
conclusions, as our expressed opinions will have led its readers to perceive. 
Then, ‘On the Crag of Yarmouth,” by Mr. Rose; ‘“‘On the Hempstead 
Beds of the Isle of Wight,” by Dr. Wilkins; ‘‘ On the Exchange of Fos- 
sils among the Members,” by Mr. Bott; ‘“‘On Gold from Nova Scotia,” 
by Mr. Tennant ; “‘On Preparing Peat for Fuel and Gas-making,” by Mr. 
Rickard; ‘On Lime and Limestone,” by Professor Tennant; ‘‘On An- 
cient Flint Implements of Yorkshire and the Modern Fabrication of simi- 
lar Specimens,” by the Rev. Mr. Wiltshire; ‘‘On the Cretaceous Rocks of 
Norfolk,” by Mr. Rose; ‘‘On the Plasticity and Odour of Clay,” by Mr. 
Tomlinson. Now, can any one glance over this list, and not see the desul- 
tory nature of the work doing by the Association? Is there any purpose 
or end to be traced in this heterogeneous collection of subjects? Mr. 
Clarke got very much laughed at, at the commencement of the institution, 
for proposing an organized survey of the whole British kingdom; but even 
it would be better to attempt that than to attempt nothing a¢ all. 

It rests, however, with the Committee, to form a plan for working the 
members together. Let them try, and they will find plenty of the mem- 
bers active enough and ready enough for work to respond to their call. 
London is the birthplace of the Geologists’ Association, and the London 
area must become sooner or later the scene of their labours and triumphs, 
or in the end the Society will pass away like a breath of the summer's 
wind and leave no imprint of its passage behind. Look at the drainage 
works and the subterranean railway. See what miles of earth they have ex- 
posed to the light of day; and who, save Mr. Cresy and Mr. Lovick on the 
actual staff of the Board of Works, Mr. Evans, Mr. Edmund Jones, and 
one or two other amateurs, have ever given even a passing glance at these 
gigantic explorations? No doubt we shall be asked, as we have been before 
on the occasions of our former strictures, why we are so hard upon the As- 
sociation, and perhaps something like malice may be again imputed to us. 
We do not, however, mean mischief in any way. We speak in the sin- 
cerest friendship, and with the utmost goodwill towards the Association ; 
but we have no other means of speaking. We hold no seat at the Council 
Board ; we take no active part in the management of the Society ; but we 
have seen the good the Society derives from the frankness of our criti- 
cisms and our unmistakable suggestions. As an example, we need only 
point to one case—the provincial excursions, the arrangements for which 
followed close on our remarks. Let no one be misled as to our intentions 
im commenting on the doings of the Association ; we wish to advance its 
welfare and permanence. 

The members have, in Professor Tennant, an active President, who. 
loses no opportunity of bringing their matters before those who can bring 
them under public notice, and these will be ready enough to bring the 
Association into prominence whenever the Society deserves it. When we 
introduce a friend into society, we like him to be somebody of whom we 
may well feel proud. The best reason for pride must be good deeds done, 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


SHPTEMBER 1862. 


SUPPOSED IMPRINTS IN THE LOWER CAMBRIAN 


BEDS OF THE ISLE 


OF MAN. 


By Joun Taytor, Esa. 
Member of Council of Manchester Geological Society, etc. 


The good example which has been set us by Mr. Salter to look out 
for traces of mechanical and vital agencies in the Cambrian beds ig 
worthy to be followed by every brother of the hammer; and instead 


of waiting, like Micawber, for “ something 
to turn up,’ to set heartily to work and 


turn up the stones for ourselves. It is | 


well known what good work Mr. Salter 
has done in the Cambrians of the Long- 
mynd, towards clearing up the circum- 
stances under which those rocks were de- 
posited, as well as in tracing the remains 


of their ancient life; but much remains to Ilil|| 


be done ere this formation is as well known 
as the others. One thing, however, is cer- 


tain, that the Cambrians and the Drift are , 
at present the “lions” of the geological » 


world, so that the study need not suffer on 
the ground of unpopularity. 

Being out one day (during a recent 
visit to the Isle of Man), at Dalby, where 


T 


Supposed footprint at Dalby, 


Isle of Man. 


= hat, size. 


the Cambrian rocks are quarried for flags by a newly-formed slate- 


VOL. V. 


27 


322 THE GEOLOGIST. 


company, I observed that many of the slabs were most decidedly 
ripple-marked. This is, I believe, the first time that such appear- 
ances have been observed in the island; indeed, with the ex- 
ception of some doubtful fucoids, no fossils have been met with in 
these beds. The ripple-marks, however, in this instance, were so dis- 
tinct, that no doubt remained in my mind as to their shallow-water 
deposition. The same feature also led me more carefully to look 
out for other signs of littoral deposits, in the shape of worm-tracks, 
sun-cracks, or rain-prints. Judge then my surprise—and, need 
I say, delight ?—upon observing the impression of what I believe 
to be footprints upon a layer of rock immediately below the ripple- 
marked bed. There were three such imprints visible, each being about 
six or eight inches out of the straight line, and alternately on each 
side. The impressions are about two feet six inches apart, and seemed 
all to have been formed by the same agency. The most distinct of 
them was broken just at the end, and a transverse section of the 
imprint shows it to be lenticular, or, in other words, that the pre- 
sent surface-appearance is not the original one, but is caused by the 
filling up of the indentation. The outline of each print is remark- 
ably distinct, and even where the surface-matter has fallen off the 
line is well preserved. The tout ensemble is very much like the 
dotted outline of the Protichnites figured in Owen’s Paleontology, and 
which have been found in the Potsdam Sandstone of Canada, and 
more recently in Lower Silurian rocks in Scotland. What seems to 
bear out the fact that these are footprints, is that the quarrymen re- 
marked they had frequently met with them. I have briefly mentioned 
this fact, intending at some future period to take up the subject 
again when my data are more numerous. 

The position of the beds containing the supposed footprints is 
towards the top of the Manx Cambrians; and near the place where I 
obtained the slab which contains them, a fault occurs, which is beauti- 
fully seen from the sea. This has thrown the layers up into an almost 
perpendicular position on the right-hand side, whilst the others on 
the left abut against them, something after the manner in which the 
books on a shelf recline against the end ones when imberveniig ones 
have been taken away. 

It is in the perpendicular beds, a few yards away from the fault, 
that the impressions are met with, along with the ripple-marks. 

The slabs are quarried in great lengths, and are very equal in 
thickness. Close to the bed containing the impressions there are 


BLAKE—PAST LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 323 


often intercalated layers of slate, quarried for roofing purposes. 
The thickness of the slabs is from three to six inches. 


[ We have given our correspondent’s communication the place of honour, because if it 
be worth anything at all, it is worthy of the utmost prominence. We add, however, a 
word of caution, for we cannot append our own testimony to Mr. Taylor’s opinion. On 
receiving the communication, we immediately wrote to Mr. ‘Taylor for the specimens, 
which he has obligingly sent us, but, unfortunately, we are no wiser than before. ‘The 
impressions, or whatever they may be, to our eyes, look more like portions of gigantic 
Lingulee, or some fibrous shell, than like footprints. If however they occur alternate ly 
on each side of a direct line, as stated by Mr. Taylor, that fact is very singular. We 
would willingly have devoted a plate to them had there been any utility in so doing, but 
although our artistic powers are tolerably good, as our readers know, we have much ‘doubt 
whether we could render them either pictorially or sufficiently intelligibly to be of any 
practical value. Mr. Salter, to whom we sent an outline of one impression, says they 
are not organic at all, and adds that we cannot possibly say whether the beds be Cam- 
brian until they have been properly surveyed. We differ from him as to their organic 
origin. We consider there is little doubt about that; but what they are we are disposed 
to think it passes the wit of man to say.—Ep. GEOL. | 


PAST LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 


By Cuartes Carrer Brakes, Esq, 


Lecturer on Zoology at the London Institution. 


The minds of the British public, accustomed to review the com- 
plex phenomena of geology and paleontology in the Old, are apt to 
neglect the equally interesting evidences afforded to them of past 
life in the New World. American paleontology is distinguished not 
because the mighty hemisphere, now the seat of political convul- 
sions, has not passed through analogous phases of life-stages to those 
presented by the elder continent, nor because the extinct fauna of 
America is less interesting than that of Hurope, Asia, or Australia, 
nor that the most eminent men in both worlds have omitted to call 
attention to the stupendous monuments of bygone existence in the 
pampas of La Plata or on the shores of Patagonia, but because the 
public mind has not yet sufficiently realized the idea that during the 
period whilst Europe and Asia underwent the manifold and changing 
influences of geological time, like conditions were passed through i in 
America. 

A tradition exists in the minds of all the earliest aboriginal nations 
of America, on the banks of the Missouri, at Manta, at Punta St. 
Elena in Beuador, at Suacha in New Granada, at Tarija on the 

eastern slopes of the Andes, and at Tagua-tagua in the south of 
Chile, that a vast nation of colossal human beings existed before the 
present inhabitants. ‘These giants, the eredulous and imaginative 
mind of the native supposed, were destroy ed by the deities, like the 
old race of Titans by the Olympian gods, or the Hrimthursar—the 


824 THE GEOLOGIST. 


frost-giants of ice and snow—by the supporters of Odin and the Asir 
in the Norse mythology. It is instructive to trace these unhistorical 
narratives back to their physical origin ; it is suggestive to find that 
such origin is rational, and does not rest upon any purely mythical 
base. Such a colossal race of beings did exist in the old times; they 
were, however, the gigantic mastodons, ete., which man drove before 
him and exterminated. When M. Albert Koch, in the year 1842, 
brought the so-called “ Missourium” skeleton to England, which after- 
wards was demonstrated to be identical with the Mastodon Ohioticus, 
and now formsa conspicuous object in the British Museum, amongst 
many other dubious anecdotes recounted by him, was one, that with 
the bones of Mastodon had been found an arrowhead, proving appa- 
rently the existence of mankind in America contemporaneous with 
this great elephantine animal. This marvellous “ Yankee cram ” was 
ridiculed by English geologists in 1842 as quite preposterous. Now, 
however, in 1862, we look at the subject with more cautious and less 
sceptical eyes. We know that both in France and England, man- 
kind either lived so far ago as the period when the hair-clad elephants 
and rhinoceroses existed in Normandy and Gascony, or (which is 
nearly the same thing) the elephants and rhinoceroses lived down to 
the period when human life, in a state of barbarism, existed in 
Europe. It is not more preposterous to believe that man, at one 
time, hunted elephants in the Confederate States than to believe that 
he hunted rhinoceroses in Normandy, and was himself the prey of 
hyeenas in Devonshire. At all the places where a tradition lke this 
exists in America, evidence of the existence of a fossil Mastodon has 
been found. . 

In Brazil, proof has been afforded us of the existence of a tradition 
amongst the Indians of a large ape, termed by them Cayporé, which 
is the analogue of the gorilla and chimpanzees of Africa. As no 
man-like ape of any sort exists in South America at the present 
time, two theories may be suggested to account for this popular 
belief. The negro slaves may have carried their faith in the existence 
of a huge ape from Sierra Leone and the Gaboon to Brazil, in the 
same manner as we recognize still amongst the half-Christianized 
slaves of America the traces of the Obeah-worship of their African 
forefathers. But the answer to this assumption is, that the tradition 
in question does not exist in the negro, but in the Indian mind. 
None of the Indians, however, have actually seen a Cayporé, or 
rather none of those Indians who profess to have seen them have un- 
dergone satisfactorily the ordeal of interrogation by such painstaling 
observers as Dr. Lund. 

A signification is afforded us of the meaning of this tradition when 
we learn that a colossal ape, approaching in size the human stature, 
once existed in Brazil, and that it was probably contemporaneous 
with the early human races. The Protopithecus Brasiliensis was 
four feet high, surpassing far the dimensions of any existing 
American moukey ; it nevertheless was a true platyrrhine, like all 
the simian forms of the New World. Found in the later Pliocene, 


BLAKE—PAST LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 325 


the possibility of its being contemporaneous with early man is ren- 
dered more probable when we reflect that on the borders of Lake 
Lagoa Santa, and at Minas Geraes, human remains have been found, 
coupled with those of forty-four extinct animals, amongst which was 
another large fossil ape, Callithrix primevus. 

The extinct elephants and horses of America afford an interesting 
source of contemplation to the reflective paleontologist. Existing 
elephants, as is well known, are but of three species, those of Africa, 
India, and Sumatra. Professor Owen has, however, pointed out that 
our knowledge has been expanded by fossil evidences, and that during 
the Pliocene period, elephants existed in Africa, India, Europe, China, 
and Australia. Thus far there was little to surprise the practical 
observer, who was accustomed to find a wider distribution of animal 
life in the later Tertiary times than in the present day. But when 
we learn that two species of elephant (Hlephas primigenius and Texi- 
anus) and one species of JZastodon co-existed with each other, in 
warm, temperate, and cold latitudes in North America, and that two 
other so-called species of elephantine animal (Mastodon Andiwm and 
M., Humboldt) browsed on the trees of South America, prior to the 
upheaval of the vast Andian chain of mountains, astonishment almost 
verges into incredulity. “ Well,” it may be said, “since we have 
thus evidence of American elephants, why may we not have evidence 
of American rhinoceroses?’’? We have such proof of an animal 
closely allied to the rhinoceros and paleothere, discovered by Mr. 
Darwin in Patagonia, and which at the same time bears some points 
of analogy, but not of affinity, with the Namas. This animal, the 
Macrauchenia, has also been found on the eastern slopes of the Andes 
at T'arija, and in the very heart of the Aymara country at Corocoro. 
Imagination can scarcely conceive the period when this bulky brute, 
with its long stiff neck, elevated straight upright, as in the guanaco, 
contested the pastures of Patagonia and Bolivia with the llamas and 
horses around it. Some reader will say, “I understood that horses 
were first introduced on the American continent by the followers of 
Columbus, and that when the aboriginal Americans first viewed the 
mounted Spaniards, they regarded them as centaur-like monsters, or 
almost as divinities.” The horse, however, of various species, had 
existed in the New World for countless centuries prior to the advent 
of the Spauish conquerors: whether its extinction dated previous to 
the human era is yet undemonstrated ; tradition even of its existence 
had passed away long before the Columbian epoch. Various species 
of these early American horses are known to us; one from the Con- 
federate States * of North America; another from Bolivia; a third 
from Chile; and a fourth from Patagonia. The last species (Hguus 
curvidens), the best known, because the first discovered, indicates a 


* An argument for the scientific recognition of the Confederate States might be founded 
upon the fact that their flora and fauna differ essentially from those of their more northern 
antagonists in the less fertile country north of the Ohio. The term “fauna of the United 
States’’ conveys no idea to the scientific mind, The term, to use Dr. Latham’s expres- 
sion, ‘means so much as to mean nothing.” 


326 THE GEOLOGIST. 


species differing only from the European horse in the greater curva- 
ture of the molar teeth. These horses no doubt existed in herds, like 
the quaggas of South Africa, or like the wild asses of Central Asia. 
The same influences which promote the numerical increase of horses 
in South America at the present day, would have tended to promote 
a similar increase of the equine race in South America during the 
Pliocene period. The horse was first introduced in a.n. 1537, at 
Buenos Ayres; forty-three years afterwards, in a.D. 1580, they were 
found at the Straits of Magellan. The cause why the horse, once 
numerous in America, became extinct centuries before the time of 
Columbus, at present baffles speculation. More significant is the 
fact, that we find in the Old World a three-toed fossil horse (Hip- 
partion) which by its annectant affinities to the earlier odd-toed her- 
bivores, has been supposed to be absolutely the ancestor of the pre- 
sent Hquus caballus. In the New World, however, no such form 
exists. Whence, then, on a derivative hypothesis, the horses of 
America ?P 

Two tapirs are found, the one in the North, the other in South 
America; a dubious tapirine form has also been found at St. Louis, 
in Missouri, associated with fossils “of unquestionable Secondary 
date!’ Pomel has erected this very suspicious type into a new 
genus, termed by him Menodus. It is not surprising that we should 
find tapirine forms in South America, when we reflect that the exist- 
ing tapir, or d’anta, is found over the whole Brazilian and Argentine 
Confederation, and from Guatemala to Patagonia. In the Panama 
and Chiriqui countries, the woolly-tapir of the Andes, or Pinchaqué,* 
also exists, a species far more nearly allied to the extinct races than 
the other American or than the Sumatran tapir. In the Andes ot 
South America, above the line of 6000 feet, the existing tapir is not 
found. 

When Castelnau was at Tarija, surrounded by fossil remains of 
mastodons, horses, macrauchenes, scelidotheres, llamas, and other 
mammalia, he was struck with the state of “ fat, contented ignorance’”’ 
in which the good Franciscan monks had arrived in geological know- 
ledge. The remains which he saw were all, according to them, proofs 
of the existence of a gigantic race of men who existed prior to the 
deluge. Padre Osorio, a Jesuit of Paraguay, nad declared, in 1688, 
that he had seen with his own eyes, in the Gran Chaco, a race of 
men of the highest physical and mental cultivation so tall that the 
Jesuit with his upraised arms could scarcely touch their heads. 
Peradventure, these races belonged to the same stock with those In- 
dians of California, immortalized by Padre Fray Pedro Simon, who 
had ears so large that they served for canopies, and under each of 
them five or six men could find ample shelter; or they might be 
allied to those of a neighbouring province, who, when in need of 
repose, used to go to sleep beneath the waters of a lake on the banks 
of which they lived. Even the giants whom Osorio imagined, how- 

* Last summer, specimens of this species, which is hitherto unrepresented in our 
National Museum, were to be sold in the streets of Panama for a dime = 6d. English. 


BLAKE—PAST LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 327 


ever, were far too small to have produced the mastodon bones of 
Tarija. When this argument was pressed on the monks, they replied, 
“that the bones had swelled since they were buried in the earth.” 
Castelnau naively remarks, that a like proof might demonstrate that 
the mastodon bones of Tarija might have belonged to dwarfs. This 
singular superstition is by no means confined to the monks. Don 
Francisco Antonio Casello gravely tells his readers, that “ the soil of 
the town of Tariia possesses the virtue of making bones grow beyond 
measure. Ifa body of ordinary size is buried, and is disinterred 
after the lapse of some time, we find the bones excessively swollen.” 
The English reader who scoffs at this ridiculous theory of the Tari- 
jans may, however, recollect that, in the year 1862, there are still a 
few writers in England who speak of “ an unknown mysterious force”’ 
which has kept the species of animals distinct from each other 
throughout all time. We are not yet so far removed from the tram- 
mels of an adherence to unproven and undemonstrable assumptions 
in science to entitle us to ridicule the hypotheses which our less- 
gifted friends in Bolivia may suggest to the world. 

The genus Antilope at present is chiefly confined to the Old 
World. Forty-seven species are found in the Old World, and one, 
or perhaps a second, in North America. In Brazil, during the 
Pliocene period, a species (Antilope maquinensis) has been discovered 
by Lund, besides two individuals of the extinct genus Leptotherium, 
allied to Cervus. The latitude of Brazil was as well qualified to sup- 
port antelopes as that of Africa or India, although, since the Plio- 
cene period, their place has been taken by the numerous species of 
small stags, the Guazutis and Brocket deer of Brazil, Colombia, and 
Mexico. 

The European dog, like the horse, was introduced into America 
by the followers of Columbus. Prior, however, to this time, there 
existed in Mexico a small lapdog, termed Alco by the Peruvians, and 
a mute silky-haired breed employed by the natives of Santo Domingo 
in the chace. These last were termed Goschis, or Gasque, which 
word seems, according to Hamilton Smith, to be corrupted from 
Guarachay, and indicates that these animals were imported by the 
Caribs from Tierra Firme. Besides these, various species of true 
wolves, prairie wolves, aguara wolves, aguéra dogs, and aguara foxes, 
being fourteen species in all, are described by Colonel Smith. In 
Santo Domingo, and on the Pampas of South America, feral dogs are 
found, the offspring of the European races. The origin of the dogs 
of Nootka Sound, of the Mackenzie River, and of the Esquimaux, is 
yet undemonstrated. In Brazil, during the Pliocene period, three 
species of dog existed. 

Mr. Waterhouse has pointed out that the existing mice of the 
New World all belong to a different genus (Hesperomys) to those of 
the Old. Many species of fossil mice of the same natural group 
as the other American mice are found in Brazil, where their bones 
whiten the floor of the caves and fissures where they have been 
dropped by the owls, who then, as now, preyed upon the diminutive 


328 THE GEOLOGIST. 


rodents and insectivores. The portions of the skeleton found fossil 
are exactly those parts which the owl cannot digest, and which she 
casts out of her mouth as innutritive or indigestible. A coypt: of 
superior size to the existing species is found in the Pliocene strata 
of Brazil. Many species of small pacas, agttis, and capybaras then 
existed allied to those which now infest the banks of the tributaries 
of the Amazon and Essequibo. 

Blood-sucking bats then, as now, found a source of aliment in the 
warm-blooded mammalia. Cats, the size of the jaguar, subsisted on the 
numerous herbivorous animals. One of them deserves especial men- 
tion. The existing cheetah (Cynailurus jubatus) is confined to the 
Old World, where alone this “ hunting-leopard,”’ with non-retractile 
claws, preys upon the antelopes and deer. It is a surprising fact 
that a very small species of this hunting-leopard (Cynailurus minutus) 
existed during the Plocene period in Brazil, with the gigantic Aachai- 
rodus, or sabre-toothed tiger, and the Buenos Ayres bear. This Ja- 
chairodus, the most carnassial of all the predatory animals known to 
zoologists, existed in the cave breccias of Devonshire, in the Sewalik 
(tertiary) strata of India, in the mountains of Auvergne and Darm- 
stadt, and in the Patagonian and Brazilian bone caves. 

In Chile the progress of geology is small. The erudite and pains- 
taking M. Claudio Gay, who was appointed by the Chileno Govern- 
ment to report on the physical productions of their republic, actually, 
when describing the Plesiosaurian bones from Concepcion,* spoke of 
them as being contemporaneous with the Mastodons of Taguatagua, 
and like them, destroyed by the diluvial catastrophe. These Plesio- 
saurt existed at Concepcion during the Jurassic period, and their re- 
mains singularly resemble those of some of the same genus from the 
chalk in England. The same observations may apply to the Ammo- 
nites, of which characteristic species are found in the “ Oxfordian” 
and “ Tiassic’”’ strata of Peru and Chile. 

Thus far we have recounted some of the leading features of South 
American Paleontology. The exigencies of space, however, necessitate 
a brief glance only at the remains of the hosts of Zoxodontia and smooth- 
brained Bruta which peopled the forests of Paraguay, the Pampas, and 
Patagonia. The labours of Mr. Charles Darwin, one of the few philo- 
sophical travellers who have ever visited South America, have made the 
forms of the Megatherium, the Mylodon, and the Glyptodon familiar 
to us; and the idea of South American Paleontology naturally re- 
calls to the mind of the reader the bulky forms of these huge beasts. 
The armadillos and sloths of Brazil now form the puny representa- 
tives of these bygone creations. The JZylodon, which, poised on its 
hinder limbs, and supported by its powerful tail, tripod-like, with 
long-continued rapid and energetic vibrations, tore down the most 
gigantic trees ; the Glyptodon, whose circular mailed cuirass suggested 


S 


the idea to its first discoverers, that they had found a buried hogs- 

head in the sand; the Zoxodon, with its strange interblending of 

characters, allied to the rhinoceros and the manatee, yet resembling 
* Geologist, vol. v. p. 110. 


BLAKE—PAST LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 8329 


strongly a magnified guinea-pig, all these past forms are enshrined 
in our Museums, or by their restorations ornament our Crystal 
Palace. The object of the present paper is not again to describe 
those animals which the acumen and critical skill of Professor Owen, 
or the sagacity and hardy research of Mr. Darwin, have unveiled to 
us. South American Paleontology may well be proud that such 
labourers as these exist to illustrate its phases, or to demonstrate its 
signification. Whilst, however, since the publication of the works of 
these Dit majores of science, “evidence has been creeping in”’ indi- 
cative of the existence of new and interesting forms of extinct life 
in South America, a rapid glance at some of which has been the ob- 
ject of the preceding paper. 

The following list is founded on that of Gervais (‘ Zoologie et Palé- 
ontologie Frangaises’), but is only intended to offer a sketch of the 
principal South American Mammalia. Many of the species entered 
in this list, will doubtless sink to the rank of mere synonyms ; whilst 
under one name, often many natural species will be comprised. In the 
meanwhile, it will be found useful as indicating the imperfect state of 
our present knowledge, which is caused by the fact that large districts 
of South America are yet unexplored by the paleontologist or the 
fossil collector. The malevolent influences, which retard the progress 
of physical science in countries colonized by Spaniards or their de- 
scendants, have been well described by the late Mr. Buckle, in the 
second volume of his ‘ History of Civilization.’ 


LIST OF FOSSIL MAMMALIA OF SOUTH AMERICA.* 


Cebus macrognathus. E. Americanus (of Chile, a different species 
Callithrix primeevus. from that of North America, to which 
Protopithecus antiquus = Brasiliensis, the same name has been given). 
Lund. E. curvidens. 
Jacchus grandis. Mastodon Andium, Cuv. % ?same spec. 
Ursus Bonariensis, Gerv. M. Humboldti, Cur. 5 Cx@oB: 
Canis protalopex. Toxodon platensis, Owen. 
C. incertus. T. angustidens. 
C. troglodytes, Lund. Nesodon imbricatus, Owen. 
Machairodus neogeeus, Owen, Lund sp. O. orinus, Owen. 
Felis protopanther. N. Sullivani, Owen. 
Felis exilis. Phyllostoma, v. sp. 
Cynailwrus minutus. Dysopes 'Temminckii. 
Antilope Maquinensis. Mus, v. sp. 
Leptotherium majus, Lund. Ctenomys antiquus, v. priscus. 
L. minus, Lund, C. Bonariensis. 
Cervus. Phyllomys Brasiliensis. 
Auchenia (2 sp.), Lund. Nelomys autricola. 
Dicotyles (pl. sp.). Lonchophorus fossilis, Lund. 
Tapirus suinus, Loncheres elegans. 
Macrauchenia Patagonica, Owen: ? M. | Aulacodon Temminckii ? 
Boliviensis, Zualey. Myopotamus antiquus, Lund. 
Equus neogzeus. Syneetheres magna. 


* Adapted from Gervais, ‘ Zoologie et Paleontologie Francgaises,’ 2nd edition, 4to. 
Paris, 1859. 
WoL. v. 2U 


330 


Syneetheres dubia. 

Lagostomus Brasiliensis. 

Dasyprocta capreolus. 

Celogenys laticeps. 

C. major. 

Kerodon antiquum. 

K. bilobidens. 

Cavia robusta. 

C. gracilis. 

Hydrocheerus sulcidens. 

Megamys Patagonensis, D’Orbigny (genus 
of which the classification is yet doubt- 
ful). 

Megatherium Cuvieri, Desm. 

Mylodon robustus, Owen. 

M. Darwini, Owen. 

M. Harlani, Owen. 

Megalonyx Kaupii: ? Gnathopsis Oweni, 
Leidy. 

M. Maquinensis. 

Scelidotherium leptocephalum, Owen. 

S. Cuvieri, Owen. 

S. Bucklandi, Owen. 

S. minutum: ? S. Brongniarti, Lund. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


Ceelodon Maquinense, Lund. 

Spheenodon minutus, Lund. sp. 

Glyptodon clavipes, Owen. 

G. reticulatus, Owen. 

G. tuberculatus = Schistopleurum typus, 
S. gemmatum and tuberculatum, NVodo?. 

G. ornatus, Owen. 

G. clavicaudatus, Owen. 

Hoplophorus euphractus. 

H. selloi, Land. 

H. minor. 

Pachytherium-magnum, Lwnd. 

Chlamydotherium Humboldtii, Lund. 

Chlamydotherium s. Ocnotherium gigas, 
Lund. 

Dasypus maximus. 

D. antiquus. 

D. punctatus. 

HKuryodon latidens, Lund. 

Heterodon diversidens, Lund. 

Glossotherium, Owen = Mylodon ? 

? Abathmodon fossilis, Lund. 

? Speothos pacivorus, Lund. 


A VISIT TO RECULVER, IN KENT. 
By George D. Grips, M.D., M.A., F.G.S. 


Those who are familiar with Sir Charles Lyell’s ‘ Principles of 
Geology’ will remember the ilustrations given, in the twentieth 
chapter of his able and most philosophical book, of the action of the 
sea on various parts of the coasts of Britain. The changes that have 
taken place in some parts, even within the historical period, have been 
very considerable, and perhaps none more so than on the eastern 
and south-eastern coasts of England, where the encroachments of the 
sea seem to have been of the most destructive character. From the 
western coast of the Isle of Sheppey, extending eastwards to Herne 
Bay, Reculver, and Thanet, the destructive action of both the sea 
and the other elements has been witnessed by many in our own time; 
aa every year tells its history of a change in some part of this line 
of coast. | 

I had long contemplated a visit to Reculver, and in the month of 
June last the opportunity of seeing this part of the coast was afforded 
me. No place is more accessible from London than Herne Bay ; 
the visitor has the opportunity of running down either by steamer 
from London Bridge, or by the London, Chatham, and Dover Rail- 
way from either the London Bridge or Victoria stations. If time is 
an object, the latter is preferable, and it was the route I chose, which 
enabled me to see and learn all that I desired in a single day. 


GIBRB—A VISIT TO RECULVER. 331 


Leaving London at a quarter-past eight on a fine Sunday morning, in 
an excursion train, with (as it appeared to myself and others) nearly 
1500 people, we made but few stoppages until we reached Faver- 
sham, at half-past ten, where those who were going on to Herne 
Bay had to change carriages. As the next train did not leave for the 
latter place until ten minutes past eleven, it allowed of time to exa- 
mine that small but apparently old town. Wereached Herne Bay at 
half-past eleven, stopping at Whitstable on our route. To some 
persons the journey of three hours and a quarter may appear long, 
but in reality it 1s not so, when the distance is considered, enlivened 
by the number of objects to be seen along the road. The sea is 
visible for some distance before reaching Herne Bay, and the heights 
of Sheppey could be very readily distinguished from the south. 

The railway station is about half a mile to the south-west of Herne 
Bay, and the latter seemed to be a larger place than I had anticipated. 
The pier, which is very long, no doubt marks the boundary of what 
was once the mainland, washed away by the sea. Immediately op- 
posite the town, the hand of man has provided against further denu- 
dation. On arriving at the eastern extremity of the town, the cliffs 
are reached, here commencing by a gentle ascent. Along their sum- 
mit I leisurely wended my way to Reculver, some three or four 
miles distant. A large portion of them had fallen only very lately 
—indeed, within the past few months, as I was informed; and to 
some extent I could recognize the deposits as described by Dr. 
Michell (Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. ii.), 7.e. in that part of the clits 
situate between Reculver and Herne Bay, about two miles in extent. 
“The upper part, where the beds are fully developed, consists of 
about 35 feet of mottled, brown, and red clay; and the lower part of 
about 50 feet of sand, containing a layer of masses of sandstone. 
Fossils are stated to be found only in the sand, and to belong chiefly 
to a species of Venus.” 

It was this high part of the cliff which was now chiefly in ruins 
from late slips, the result of the great rains in early spring. I could 
observe too, many large slabs of this sandstone strewed along the 
beach. About halfway I came to a deep ravine, and although the 
cliff here was very steep, 1 managed to descend and cross it without 
going half a mile round. I did not stop now until I arrived at the 
old church of Reculver, unless occasionally to gaze at it from a dis- 
tance, its appearance being long familiar to me from the drawings in 
Sir Charles Lyell’s book. I was certainly amply repaid for my visit ; 
here was before me a good illustration of the wear and tear of the 
land by the sea, aided by the rains. Years ago I was delighted with 
the description of this pretty spot, and had often expressed the desire 
to visit it. Speaking of this place, Sir Charles says, “ Still further 
east stands the church of Reculver, upon a cliff composed of clay and 
sand, about twenty feet high. Reculver (Regulvium) was an im- 
portant military station in the time of the Romans, and appears, from 
Leland’s account, to have been, so late as Henry VIII.’s reign, nearly 
one mile distant from the sea. In the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine’ 


332 THE GEOLOGIST. 


there is a view of it, taken in 1781, which still represents a consider- 
able space as intervening between the north wall of the churchyard 
and the cliff. Some time before the year 1780, the waves had reached 
the site of the ancient Roman camp, or fortification, the walls of 
which had continued for several years after they were undermined to 
overhang the sea, being firmly cemented into one mass. They were 
eighty yards nearer the sea than the church, and they are spoken of 
in the ‘Topographia Britannica,’ in the year 1780, as having recently 
fallen down. In 1804, part of the churchyard with some adjoining 
houses was washed away, and the ancient church, with its two lofty 
spires, a well-known landmark, was dismantled and abandoned as a 
place of worship. It is still standing (1834), but would probably 
have been annihilated ere this, had not the force of the waves been 
checked by an artificial causeway of stones and large wooden piles 
driven into the sands to break the force of the waves.” 

Let us see how matters now are, in 1862, some twenty-eight years 
after Sir Charles visited it. The towers of the old church still stand 
as represented in the picture in Sir 
Charles’s book, but a large portion of 
the cliff an front, fully two-thirds, has 
fallen down, that especially including 
the hedges; and the burying-ground 

= = === is now exposed in a line parallel to 
Trerreammrs NS = =the front of the church. Besides the 
= == groins and the artificial causeway of 
‘= stones, to protect this part of the 
. coast, there is an artificial embank- 
Hig. 1-— View of Reeulver, 1848." “Tent as well, exbendime tothe west 
of the church. I compared the accompanying reduced copy of a wood- 
cut, made in 1848, of “ Reculver, as it is,” with the ruins, on the spot. 
It is very correct as to the towers and remains of walls, with the bea- 
cons on the former. But the stone fence there represented is wholly 
gone. So that the chief alteration round Reculver is the loss of a 
considerable portion of the cliff in front of the church, and the dis- 
appearance of the low wall which surrounded the northern aspect of 
the latter. The wear and tear of the cliff to the westward, no doubt, 
has been considerable during the last thirty years, and it appears to 
be gradually stealing upon the contiguous farmland, as is witnessed 
at Sheppey. 

IT examined the old church in every particular, ascended the old 
spiral stone staircase in the northern tower to the first floor, thence 
three distinct ladders which lead to the top, and I stood alongside 
the beacon. As the wind was very strong, I did not remain long, 
but enjoyed a magnificent view of things in the distance. I could 
see Margate in one direction, and Sheppey in the other, and likewise 
far inland to the southward; whilst to the north and east, the sea 
was seen covered with boats and vessels as far as the eye could reach. 
On descending to the first floor again, we passed out of a door lead- 
ing to a sort of friars’ walk, which took us across to the other or 


GIBB—-A VISIT TO RECULVER. 333 


southern tower. Numerous holes were seen inside the walls, in which 
birds had built their nests; some of them contained young, of the 
starling especially. I picked up in this tower a few human bones 
from the churchyard, collected by the people who had charge of the 
place, and brought away with me an axis, a clavicle, and a temporal 
bone, in the usual condition of graveyard specimens. 

I now descended to the ground and visited the Roman encamp- 
ment, at least the remains of it, walking round as much of the old 
wall as is visible at its eastern and southern faces. It was still very 
perfect, although in some places undermined, and portions had fallen 
outwards in some places. Many fragments of genuine Roman brick 
were observed, which had been built in by the Romans. Occasionally 
Roman coins are found about here, generally much defaced and in 
bad condition. Gold rings and other articles are now and then 
picked up at the base of the exposed wall of the old graveyard, and 
not unfrequently the end of a coffin becomes exposed, and its contents 
are soon rifled with the object of finding jewellery. 

As an object of antiquity, the remains of the old church are well 
worthy of preservation. I lingered about Reculver for some hours, 
and retraced my steps to Herne Bay. From Reculver, and indeed all 
along the coast to Herne Bay, the high land of the east end of 
Sheppey is a prominent object in the distance. Shoeburyness, on the 
opposite side of the Thames, can also be seen. South of this place is 
Herne, which gives its name to what once was a bay. Herne Bay 
has nothing to boast of but the sea and its long pier, the termination 
of which shows where the line of coast at one time extended, as we 
may infer from the Admiralty charts of the present day, which I 
think very accurately indicate the former position and boundaries of 
the land by the presence of the shoals of clay and sand. The point 
of attraction about here is certainly Re- 
culver, but the inhabitants do not appear 
to know it. 

About halfway to Reculver, I picked up, 
on the top of the cliff an undoubted flint- / 
implement in a broken condition, but still ; 
sufficiently distinct to point out its real : 
nature. It strongly resembles many of \ 
those I have seen, both in colour and shape. 

The latter is shown in the annexed woodcut. 
It is not the first time that flint-implements 
have been found at Reculver, as in the 
‘Geologist’ for July they are referred to, in 

a review of Mr. Kvans’s paper on ‘ Fur- 
ther Discoveries of Flint Implements in the 
Drift.’ 

The train which brought me down to Fig. 2.—Small flint implement. 
Herne Bay left for London at  half-past 
seven, having allowed me eight hours to wander about a part of the 
coast, which will amply repay a visit. 


"« 
. 
. 
. 


334 


THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 
By W. H. Benstep, Esq. 
(Continued from page 301.) 


The Kentish Ragstone is a source of very considerable trade to 
Maidstone, and gives employment to many workmen. Several barges 
are constantly engaged in conveying to the coasts of Kent and Sussex, 
in the marshes of which it is very extensively employed for the banks 
or sea-walls. In Romney Marsh and on the eastern side of the Isle 
of Sheppey a large expenditure is yearly incurred im thus protecting 
large and valuable tracts of land from the ravages of the sea. The rag- 
stone is also extensively used as a road-stone and for buildings, large 
quantities of the stone being sent to London and other places espe- 
cially for the former purpose. A small quantity is burnt into lime of 
a very superior quality ; but the abundance of chalk in this neighbour- 
hood, and the greater cheapness of that rock, prevents the general use 
of the stronger but more costly stone-lime. 

Many handsome buildings in Maidstone and other places in the 
county are built of it. Of these in Maidstone may be mentioned 
the new gaol, the lunatic asylum, and the new church. Of ancient 
buildings constructed of it are the old parish church of All Saints, 
the Episcopal Palace and College. Many of the London churches, and 
nearly all of those on the banks of the Thames and Medway, have a 
great proportion of this stone in their walls; and proofs of its dura- 
bility and early application to building purposes may be seen in the 
present condition of Allington and Rochester castles, and most of 
the bridges from Aylesford to Tunbridge. 

In removing the pier of the centre arch at Aylesford, the mortar, 
made of ragstone-lime, had become so hard that blasting by gun- 
powder was necessary to separate the stones. 

In the Iguancdon quarry alone from twenty-five to thirty men are 
constantly at work. Upon uncovering the stone, the surface and 
sides are found to be water-worn in an extraordinary manner; the 
cause of which will be considered when the superficial clay is de- 
scribed. The upper layer is very irregular in thickness, and is of an 

7 inferior quality, being porous and cherty, of a 
spongeous structure, and coloured by oxide of 
f iron. The principal fossil is Zrigonia spinosa, 

which occurs in chalcedony. These trigoniz are 
frequently met dispersed over the surface-soil, 
being the relies of beds of stone which have been 
subjected to destruction. This layer is about 6 
to 8 inches thick, and of a conecretionary cha- 

Big. 7.—Aleyonium (?) racter. A group of three layers of stone follow 
trom upper beds. next; the stone being hard, crystalline, and 
slightly tinged of a ferruginous colour. The upper layer. contains 
quantities of the stems and lobes of a singular sponge or zoophyte, in 


< Hepsenaticlag CAGE A 5 


aes 


SNOlIUVA 


fey, 
eee BT i 
SS 


ER oa tay _—— 


Star Y Re et 


‘LIIAX WLVTd 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 335 


shape and appearance very like an aleyonium. Some of the branches 
of these fossils radiate from the central mass to a distance of 18 inches 
(fig. 7), each branch ending with a thick knob, and I have seen as 
many as twenty or thirty springing from a single stem. In some 
instances the sponges are prostrate, in others erect, as in fig. 4, plate 
XIX. 

It is very rarely. that shells are found in the stone of this group ; oc- 
easionally a detached valve of a terebratula or of an oyster is seen. 
The associated beds of hassock are very soft, and full of casts of 
cylindrical stems ; the lowermost stone-bed is remarkably cavernous, 
from the hassock below it being washed away, leaving the siliceous no- 
dules standing out. 

In 1846 I discovered in these beds a saurian bone bearing a great 
resemblance to the tibia of the _Iguanodon; but as only one end was 
preserved, I cannot come to any certain determination of it. 

A second group of limestone now follows, of a light colour, and as- 
sociated with hassock of a very good quality for building-purposes. 
The first bed is sometimes 3 feet in thickness, and the stone excel- 
lent for working up. The hassock ranges from 2 to 3 feet in thick- 
ness, and is of a coarse texture. No traces of stem-casts have been 
met with in this group. One of the most remarkable of the Lower 
Greensand spongeous organisms is, however, so characteristic of it, 
that in the course of twenty years’ collecting I have not met with 
this form in any of the other strata. During that period I have col- 
lected a large number of specimens, showing a great variety of form 
and condition, it being only from a very numerous and well-selected 
series that a true conclusion as to their habits of growth and nature 
can be drawn. These fossils are, I believe, a species of Siphonia. The 
accompanying figures (Pl. xvii. and xvii.) give numerous details of 
the principal and the subsidiary parts. It appears to have had a cylin- 
drical stem, with lobes at intervals in the course of its direction; the 
lobes bulging out on one side more than on the other, and varying 
much in size. They are generally rougher or more covered with pa- 
pille than the stem. Four, and even more, of these lobes have been 
seen on a single stem, the apex or top of which general consists of a 
nodule of siliceous sand, even when these sponges are embedded in 
the limestone rock. In the accompanying plate (Pl. xvii.) the head 
is composed of siliceous sand, the stem and lower lobe of calcareous 
limestone of similar texture to the surrounding matrix. These con- 
ditions were so common, that I was led to examine the structure of 
the siliceous heads, and found that sponge-spiculea were much more 
abundant in them than in the stem and lower lobes, which invariably 
partake more or less of the properties of the surrounding stone. 

These sandy or cherty heads or nodules sometimes contain a con- 
tinuation of the stem and one of its lobes asa core within them. In 
some specimens only an ordinary portion of the stem passes through ; 
in others, these siliceous exerescences are permeated by numerous 
smaller branches ramifying through them. These nodules are full of 
sponge-spiculz, which are especially abundant round the stems and 


306 THE GEOLOGIST. 


lobes, which they cover as a fringe (PI. xviii. fig. 4) ; but the stem and 
lobes below the nodules very rarely display any spicule, and often 
present a smooth surface as if abraded. 

In these stone-beds beaded branches often attracted my attention. 
These consisted of small lobes close to each other, and about the size 
of common peas (PI. xviii. fig. 3). I have collected many specimens, 
and have come to the conclusion that they are parts of these lobed 
siphonizw; some of these branches are single, others double or bifur- 
cate—in one instance trifurcate. The beaded portions often pro- 
eeed from a thin cylindrical stem. The accompanying illustrative 
figures in Pl. xvii. are—Figs. 1 and 2. Lateral branches of siphonia. 
Fig. 5. Node of stem of siphonia. Fig. 6. Branches of small lobes 
with a return, or a furcation. Tig. 7. Beaded branch crossing a 
stem of siphonia, and two other branches or stems. Fig. 8. Sec- 
tion of a small lobe with stem passing through it. Fig. 9. View of 
upper surface of the same lobe, covered with what I believe to be 
spicule. As to the conjectured mass of spicule in the last figure, 
I am in doubt whether to consider it as belonging to the siphonia, 
or whether to attribute the formation of those spicule-like objects 
to crystalline action. Such appearances frequently occur in slabs of 
stone over spaces of many square inches, seemingly not extending to 
any depth, but all arranged parallel to each other, and running as a 
seam through the stone for some distance, and, as far as could be 
perceived, unconnected in any way with any portions of siphonie or 
other sponges. In a considerable number of specimens I have no- 
ticed on the stems and lobes a kind of fringe or border running 
lengthwise, similar to the ridges left upon the surface of plaster models 
by the seams in the moulds. These ridges are generally on opposite 
sides of, and parallel with the stem. 

The hassock beds of this group contain some highly interesting 
remains of fossil plants. In 1839, I-discovered an exceedingly in- 
- teresting specimen of Dracena—the first specimen of this genus met 
with in the Lower Greensand. It is now in the British Museum, 
and it has been named by M. Konig, Dracena Benstedu.* 

A paper was read betore the Geological Society, by Dr. Mantell, 
in 1848, descriptive of a fossil cone which I discovered in the hassock 
of this group, and presented by me to that eminent geologist. The 
following extract from the proceedings of that Society may be con- 
veniently added in this place. 

“The vegetable remains from this quarry are referable to the 
acotyledonous, monocotyledonous, and dictyledonous classes. They 
consist of Huecus Largonii, and some intermediate species of the 
same genus; of stems, and apparently traces of foliage of endogenous 
trees allied to Dracena, and trunks and branches of conifere. 

“The wood occurs both in a calcareous and siliceous state. I have 


* Dracena is a genus of plants of the Order Liliaceee. Mr. Konig has neither figured 
nor described the specimen so far as we know; but the name is taken, in Professor 
Morris’s catalogue, apparently from the Museum tablet attached to the specimen.—ED. 
GEOL, 


aS Andie 


THE 


KENTISH 


RAGSTONHE, 


PLATE XIX. 


AT MAIDSTONKE. 


} 
| 
} 
| 

f 
; 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 337 


a portion of a small stem, eight inches long, which is converted into 
black flint, to the extent of six or seven inches, while the remainder 
is a friable carbonate of lime; the general aspect of this specimen, 
and the indications of eight irregular branches, prove at once its 
exogenous character. The cone found associated with this wood is 
in every respect such a fruit as a tree of the kind above described 
would produce. It bears a close resemblance to a fossil from the 
Greensand of Dorsetshire, discovered by Dr. Buckland, and figured 
in tke ‘ Fossil Flora of Great Britain’ under the name of Abies ob- 
longata. In its general form, and in the shape of the scales and seeds, 
the Maidstone specimen is decidedly distinct. Unfortunately, the 
outer surface is so much worn that the external figure of the scales 
cannot be accurately defined, but the sections show their propor- 
tionate thickness; and as Abies is distinguished from Pinus by the 
thinness of the ends of the scales, the affinity of the fossil is clearly 
pointed out. There is an opening at the base of the cone occasioned 
by the removal of the stalk (PI. xix. fig. 1), and an accidental oblique 
fracture exhibits the internal structure. In the longitudinal section 
thus exposed (fig. 2), the scales are seen to be rounded and broad 
at their base, and to rise gradually ant become thin at their outer 
terminations (fig. 3). The seeds are oblong, and one seed is embedded 
within the base of each seale; in some instances there appears to be 
the remains of the embryo.” There are about twenty-three seeds 
observable in the sections. 

This limestone group is followed by a series of chert beds or sili- 
ceous hassock. The chert is nearly black, and in places very shat- 
tery; the more solid parts are very hard. An interesting occurrence 
took place a few years since, which elucidates in one way how flint 
veins in the chalk may be shattered in situ, as they are seen to be in 
some localities in the Isle of Wight. The stone is thrown down in 
my quarry in immense quantities, and in the fall of a large mass 
of some hundreds of tons the concussion so acted upon the brittle 
texture of the chert-seams as to shiver them into thin fragments, 
while the limestone with which they were intercalated in the block 
was scarcely at all affected. 

The next group of strata, which, from the occurrence in it of the 
bones of that reptile, I have called the ITguanodon group, consists of 
two thin layers of very light-coloured limestone with intercalated 
seams of hassock, much of the loose and “shaky”? portions of which 
consist of stems and nodules similar to the Spongites Benstedii. 

Hitherto very few shells have been met with, but in this group we 
find the first distribution of a very characteristic one, Zrigonia ale- 
Jormis. A Trigonia, but of another species, 7. spinosa, occurs in the 
upper bed of irregular ferruginous stone ; the specimens of which are 
usually converted into chaleedony having the lines upon the shells 
clearly defined, but in these Iguanodon beds casts only are met with, 
a residue of white powder being all that remains of the shells; it 1s 
thus very rarely that the fossils can be extracted from the stone, 
little more than the impressions in most cases remaining. 

2x 


388 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The remains of Iguanodon were discovered in 1834, after the blast- 
ing of one of the layers. The bore being placed in the middle of a 
rise or mound in the stone, the separation of the mass was so com- 
plete, that some parts were thrown by the force of the powder to a 
considerable distance, and a month elapsed before I could fit the 
fragments together in their relative places. Fortunately there was 
no intervening piece lost; and the mass, as shown in the drawing, was 
completely put together. It is probable, however, that more of the 
skeleton had been embedded in the surrounding stone, and had been 
removed by the workmen previous to the blasting out of the portion 
preserved. This is the more likely, as I took every precaution to 
search what remained of the bed im every direction around the spot 
where it was found for some time afterwards, but without success. 

I then constructed a shed to cover the specimen, and set to work 
to chisel away the stone covering over the bones. As the enormous 
proportions of the femur became developed, the interest of the work 
increased in a great degree; and not having any one near me suffi- 
ciently acquainted with comparative anatomy to help me to a know- 
ledge of the structure of this novelty, and finding the characters of 
the bones to differ so widely from any drawings I could get access to, 
T acquainted Dr. Mantell with my discovery. From the plates in his 
excellent work, ‘ The Geology of the South-East of England,’ I formed 
the opinion that my specimen was a large portion of the skeleton of 
the great herbivorous reptile, the Iguanodon—an opinion the Doc- 
tor concurred in when shortly afterwards he inspected the specimen. 

The bones thus obtained consisted of two thigh-bones, each 33 
inches long; a lee bone (tibia), 830 mches; a chevron-bone, or one of 
the inferior processes of the tail, 12 inches; the metatarsal and pha- 
Jangeal bones of the hind feet; two claw-bones (unguical phalanges), 
which were covered by the nail and claw; two fingers or metacarpal 
bones of the fore-feet, 14 inches; a radius; several dorsal and caudal 
vertebre ; fragments of several ribs; the two clavicles; and two large 
flat bones, apparently parts of the pelvis. 

The next bed below the Iguanodon strata is the “ Moiluskite Has- 
sock,”’—a layer of hassock containing an immenseaccumulation of dead 
shells, drifted wood, and a great quantity of round masses of a dark 
animal substance. The shells are chiefly those of Trigonia aleformis, 
but WVautilus elegans is of frequent occurrence; and by judicious 
cleavage of the layer, most interesting groups of fossils are obtained. 
The brown masses of animal matter or molluskite is chiefly contained 
within the cavities of the shells, with whose white shell-substance it 
strangely contrasts. A fine specimen of a sauroid tooth was found by 
me in this stratum, and presented by me to Professor Owen, who 
named it Polyptychodon continuus, and favoured me with the follow- 
ing observations upon it :—“The tooth belongs to one of the largest 
and one of the rarest of the extinct gigantic marine Saurians, cha- 
racteristic of the chalk and greensand formations. Some enormous 
bones of the Polyptychodon were discovered in a greensand quarry at 
Hythe, and were presented by H. B. Mackeson, Esq., to the British 


BENSTEAD—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 339 


Museum. Your tooth belongs to the species continuus, so called on 
account of the enamel being continued from top to bottom; the den- 
tine is compact, and has been resolved by decomposition into a series 
of superimposed hollow cones; the pulp-cavity is confined to the base 
of the crown, by which it differs from the teeth of the Hypsodon.”’ 

A paper was read before the Geological Society on the peculiarity 
observed in this layer, of the cavities of the shells being filled with 
molluskite. In the blocks of “firestone’’ or Upper Greensand, which 
are visible at low-water along the shore at Soutlbourne, Sussex, small 
concretions of phosphate of lime are thickly interspersed amongst 
the fossil shells. In my earliest geological researches along the 
Sussex coast, these fossil bodies particularly arrested my attention ; 
but I failed to obtain any clue to their origin until the important 
memoir on coprolites, by Dr. Buckland, pointed out the right path 
of inquiry, and gave the clue to the formation of molluskite from the 
animal matter of the shell-fish. 

That a large proportion of these phosphatic concretions and nodu- 
lar masses are the mineralized egesta of fishes and other marine ani- 
mals, there can be but little doubt, although it is rarely, if ever, possible 
to detect any traces of the convolutionary form of the intestines 
through which they have passed, and which are always more or less 
strongly impressed on the coprolites of the Chalk, Wealden and Lias. 
In the Southbourne rocks, however, instances are very common in 
which the phosphatic matter occurs as casts of shells, especially of 
the genera Venus and Trochus, which abound in the firestone beds ; 
the substance of which casts appears, therefore, to have originated 
from the soft bodies of the mollusca that died within them. In 
Sussex, these phosphatic nodules are very abundant in the layers 
of the firestone which form the junction with the Gault. They are 
also frequent in the beds of Gault at Ringmer and Nortington, near 
Lewes, and in the Surrey strata. They also occur at Folkestone, in 
Kent. At page 296, lalso mentioned the occurrence of similar nodules 
at New Hythe. The late Dr. Fitton, in his elaborate memoir ‘ On 
the Strata below the Chalk’ (Trans. Geol. Soe. vol. iv. pl. 2, p. 111), 
has given a description and analysis of those coprolitic nodules and 
concretions which occur at Folkestone. He says, “They resemble 
coprolites in their chemical composition, though no traces of animal 
structure are apparent in them. They sometimes enclose portions of 
shells, but no fragments of bones or scales of fishes.* In some cases 
they are of very irregular figure, surrounding or incorporated with 
fossil remains, the interior of which is filled with matter of the same 


* In some few cases I have found fish scales and small teeth of sharks in those at 
Folkestone. Shell-casts, especially of Dentalia, are very common; and one very important 
layer in the Gault at Folkestone is entirely formed of the more or less broken casts of 
aminonites. Portions of wood are extremely common in the nodules forming the junction 
bed of Gault and Lower Greensand there. Fossil oyster-shells and serpula are very com- 
monly attached to their exterior surfaces, showing they were consolidated whilst lying 
at the bottom of the Gault and Greensand seas, and before they were embedded.— 
Ep. Grou. 


340 THE GEOLOGIST. 


kind.” The remark last quoted bears directly on the point noticed 
in the ragstone hassock in my quarry. vi 

In the grey Shanklin sand these nodules abound in some localities. 
I have observed them in Sussex, in Surrey, in the Isle of Wight, 
near Ventnor, and in many parts of Kent. In vol. iv. (p. 35) of the 
Geological Society’s Proceedings, Dr. Mantell writes, “ Mr. Bensted 
having long paid attention to this subject, submitted to my inspec- 
tion several specimens of Rostellaria, Trigonia, and other shells, the 
cavities of which were filled with a dark-brown substance, in many 
respects identical with the nodular and irregular concretions of 
coprolitic matter which abound in the surrounding sandstone. At 
the same time, Mr. Bensted expressed his conviction that the car- 
bonaceous substance was derived from the soft bodies of the mollusca, 
and that the coneretionary and amorphous portions: of the same 
matter dispersed throughout the sandstone of the bed were fossilized 
masses of the soft bodies of the animals disengaged from their shells, 
and which had floated in the sea until enveloped in the sand and 
mud which is now converted into the sandstone called the Kentish 
Rag. The evidence collected by Mr. Bensted appears to me so con- 
clusive and so confirmatory of the opinions previously stated, that 
I beg to place before the Society the following abstract of his corre- 
spondence with me upon the subject :—‘ The bed of Kentish Rag in 
my quarry, which lies immediately beneath the stratum that contained 
the remains of the Iguanodon, abounds in the usual shells of the 
Lower Greensand, but moze particularly in Trigoniw (generally 7. 
aleformis), and there is an abundance of a dark-brown coprolitic- 
looking substance, of which I send specimens. 

“<«Tn some instances this material actually forms the entire casts of 
the univalves and bivalves, and I think there can be no doubt that it 
is derived from the soft bodies of the animals which inhabited the 
shells found in connection with it fossilized in this peculiar manner. 
There are many examples which look more lke true coprolites of 
fishes, and some of them contain shells partly crushed, as if they had 
been the undigested contents of the intestinal canal. Iam therefore 
inclined to think that the dark material which now occupies the 
shells was the soft body of the mollusk; that those masses of a con- 
cretionary form which are embedded in the stone are coprolites; and 
that the shapeless portions of this substance distributed in the rock 
have originated from floating masses of the bodies of the dead shell- 
fish. In illustration of the manner in which such an accumulation 
of materials as I find in my quarry may have been formed, I beg to 
call your attention to the following extract from the American Jour- 
nal of Science :—“ One of the most curious phenomena of the year 
1836 has been the fatal effect of an epidemic disease among the mol- 
luscous animals or shell-fish of the Muskingum River, Ohio. It com- 
menced in April and continued until June, destroying millions of 
that quiet retiring race which peoples the bed of streams. As the 
animal died the valves of the shell opened, and decomposition com- 
mencing, the muscular adhesions gaye way, and the fleshy portion 


CORRESPONDENCE. 341 


rose to the surface of the water, leaving the shell on the bed of the 
stream. As the dead bodies floated down the current the heads of 
islands, masses of fixed drifted wood, and the shores in many places 
were covered with them, tainting the air with putrid effluvia.’ ” 

Now, nearly the whole of the shells which occur in this bed of rag- 
stone appear to have been dead shells. J mean, that from the open 
state of the valves it is probable that the animals were for the most part 
dead before they were enveloped in the sand and mud; and from the 
large quantity of waterworn (coniferous) wood perforated by litho- 
domi, that is imbedded with them, it would appear that this stratum 
had constituted a bank of drifted wood and shells, presenting a very 
analogous condition to the phenomena above described. The mol- 
luscous bodies of the trigonias, gervillias, rostellarias, and oysters, 
etc., detached from their shells, would have been intermingled with 
drift-wood on such a sandbank; while, in other cases, the animal- 
matter would remain in the shells. These masses becoming fos- 
silized would.present when loose the patches of molluskite, and when 
retained in the shells the phosphatic casts observed. 

The Rev. J. B. Reade submitted some of the molluskite to an ana- 
lysis by Mr. Rigg, who confirmed Dr. Mantell’s suspicion of the 
presence of animal-carbon in it, and states that the darker portion 
of the substance contains about 35 per cent. of its weight. Dr. 
Mantell adds that a microscopical examination of some specimens 
with a low power detects innumerable portions of the nacreous la- 
mine of shells of extreme thinness, intermingled with carbonaceous 
matter, together with many silicecus spicule of sponges, very minute 
spines of Hchinodermata and Polypifera. Of these extraneous 
bodies he remarks, that probably they became intermingled in the 
soft animal-mass before the latter had undergone complete decom- 
position. He proposed the term Molluskite for this fossil sub- 
stance, and considers the substance of the dark spots and markings 
in the Purbeck marble to be identical. Since this paper was read, 
I have closely examined many of these bodies, and from the presence 
of minute bones of fishes, I am convinced that avery large proportion 
are the egesta of fishes. 

(To be continued.) 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


The Muskham Skull. 


S1r,—Have the following facts, stated by an anatomist of European re- 
putation for the last thirty years, any bearing on the question of the obli- 
ey of the foramen magnum in the Muskham skull, as described by Prof. 

uxley and Mr. C. Carter Blake, in the ‘ Geologist’ for June last 2 

Speaking of the Kaffirs, Dr. Knox states (‘ Races of Men,’ p. 226), that 
“the form of the skull differs from ours, and it is placed differently on 


342 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the neck; the texture of the brain is, I think, generally darker, and the 
white part more strongly fibrous; but I speak from extremely lmited 
experience.” Speaking of the Hindis, he states (‘ Races of Men,’ p. 246), 
that two young Brahmins which he saw had “heads peculiarly formed 
—hammer-shaped, in fact—set on the neck differently from the Euro- 
ean. 
P It is to be hoped that the forthcoming detailed examination, by Dr. 
Knox and Mr. Carter Blake, of a large series of recent skulls in the Eth- 
nological Society’s collection, may lead to some satisfactory result on this 
interesting question.—I am, etc., 
POLYGENIST. 


Flint Implements. 


S1r,—One or two statements made in an article which appeared in the 
‘Geologist’ of last month, on M. Gras’ attack on the evidence of the 
Flint Implements in respect to the antiquity of man, seem to me to re- 
quire correction. 

In touching upon one of the points of M. Gras’ attack, viz. “the as- 
tonishing multitude of these axes,” the following interrogative is put and 
answered :—‘‘ But, in reality, how common are the true worked flints ? 
We have seen one only from all the great gravel-beds round and under 
London ; and miles of them have lately been cut through for the sewer- 
works. We have seen, may be, half-a-dozen from Suffolk, a like number 
from Bedford, two or three from Kent, and less than a dozen from all 
parts of England. As to the Yorkshire specimens, we must know more 
about them, and where they come from, before we can say much about 
them. I suppose, however, whether anczent or modern, not more than a 
hundred exist from that, the largest county in England, and numbering 
as many acres as there are words ip the Bible.” 

From the above extract it appears that considerable doubt exists as to 
the genuineness of the numerous collections of flint-implements made by 
various individuals in the last-named county. About twenty years ago, I 
casually saw at Boynton Hail, which is situate a few miles from Bridling- 
ton, and which belongs to Sir George Strickland, a small but interesting 
collection of flint arrowheads, axes, etc., made previous to the year 1800. 
It was after my inspection of this collection that I was induced to search 
in the same localities; and during the period above-mentioned, I have 
accumulated several thousands ; nine-tenths I have picked up myself, and 
the rest have been brought to me by men and children who have found 
them while working in the fields. 1 beg to refer your readers to a lecture 
delivered by the Rev. T. Wiltshire to the Geologists’ Association at the 
beginning of the year, on the “ Ancient Flint Implements of Yorkshire, 
and the Modern Fabrication of similar Specimens.” On this occasion the 
reverend gentleman exhibited two hundred and sixty-eight specimens. To 
show, however, with what facility spurious flint weapons could be manu- 
factured, a person was in attendance who, with only a small piece of iron 
rod, bent at the end, produced by a littie dexterous manipulation almost 
any shape required. The forged implements, however, may be detected 
by the practised eye, as there are certain peculiarities about them which 
make them differ from the authentic ones. Those interested in such 
matters I would refer to a report of my collection, which appeared in the 
third volume of the Proceedings of the Leeds and West Riding of York- 


CORRESPONDENCE. 343 


shire Philosophical Society ; and also to ‘The Celt, the Roman, and the 
Saxon,’ by T. Wright, Esq. 

At the conclusion of the article alluded to, the following question is 
asked: ‘* Will M. Gras assert he has ever seen a pointed weapon either 
ground or polished?” As this question is put to M. Gras under the im- 
pression that there are no such pointed tools or weapons, I may state 
there are such in my collection, though I confess they are by no means 
common, for, during the whole period that I have devoted to collecting 
these things, I have found but three. 

The majority of my rudest weapons and tools were found at greater 
depths, generally speaking, than those which are more elaborately worked, 
and the transition in Yorkshire from the rude to the more highly finished 
implements may be said to have been gradual and apparently uninter- 
rupted; for we find on the same land at various depths, first the most 
artistic, then a little lower others ruder in shape, and a few inches above 
the Chalk they are found amongst gravel through which water highly 
charged with oxide of iron has percolated, thereby changing the colour of 
the flints there embedded, which are generally very rude in their make. 
Many of the arrowheads and spear-points exhibit quite a porcellaneous 
appearance, which betokens their great antiquity. ‘Those discovered in 
sandy places are of the natural colour, but are very bright on the surface. 

There can be little doubt that flint-implements were used up to a com- 
paratively late date.* If in Yorkshire-weapons and tools to be coated with 
carbonate of lime and stained with oxide of iron, and also ground at the point, 
be an indication of their antiquity, then the Yorkshire flints are as old as 
any hitherto found. And why should it not be so? “ seeing that we find 
ordinary gravel-flints in myriads on the surface of the soil. Can you go 
through any field, over any downs, across any chalk country, and not pick 
up, if you please, tons upon tons or cartload upon cartload? If one 
sort, why not then another? Is the proportion of flint-implements to un- 
worked stones likely to be less in the disintegrated gravel-bed strewn over 
the soil than in the solid untouched stratum lying intact in the earth? 
And if not, are we less likely to find flint-implements on the surface of the 
soil than in the gravel-beds beneath it? Weare sure we need not reply to 
these questions: our readers will have answered for themselves.” 

Yours, etc., 

Bridlington, Yorkshire. Kpw. TINDALL. 


[The article on M. Gras was written by me, and why my name did not 
appear was quite a matter of accident. All the world knows that I never 
hesitate to speak out; but all the world knows that if I do say a thing 
not exactly kind I have good grounds—or at least sincerely believe I have 
—before 1 sayit. I have said [am satisfied some of the so-termed “ haches 
reputed to be from St. Acheul” may be ‘ haches” from St. Acheul, but 
are not fossil “‘haches” at all. They are rank forgeries. With respect 


* It was the constant policy of the Romans to draught off the rising population of the 
conquered provinces, and send them to occupy stations, and, in fact, to form colonies in 
other countries. We find mentioned in old writers and in inscriptions numerous a/@ 
and cohorts of Britons in various parts of the Roman empire. According to the ‘ No- 
titia,’ the fourth a/a of Britons was stationed in Kgypt. The twenty-sixth cohort of 
Britons occurs in Armenia, A body of the “ Invincible Younger Britons” were sta- 
tioned in Spain ; and one of the “ Elder Britons ” in Illyricum. The “ Younger British 
Slingers” (funditores) are found among Palatine auxiliaries. See Wright’s ‘Celt, 
Roman, and Saxon,’ foot-note, p. 104. See the above-mentioned ‘ Notitia,’? book iy. 
chap. x. pp. 199, 200, ete. 


844 THE GEOLOGIST. 


to the Yorkshire so-termed fossil specimens, I do admit that I am not a 
believer in them. I have seen so many deliberate forgeries from thence 
that I did not require the practical performance before my eyes of a York- 
shire flint-chipper to satisfy me how able some of the natives of that county 
were to “‘come Yorkshire over” us natives here. Our readers are referred 
to Mr. Wiltshire’s paper, which we have read long ago,—but what is there 
in it that has anything to with the question of the fossz/ flint-implements 
of Yorkshire? Mr. Wiltshire takes up an historical topic, and deals with 
flint-implements from graves and entrenchments at Fimber,—entrench- 
ments, the origin of which he attributes to the Brigantes. These Fimber 
weapons are flint flakes, arrow-heads, and sling-stones: none of the first 
more than two inches long, and none of the latter more than about an inch. 
All this is very far away from the subject of gravel-drift: implements. 

Reference is made in our correspondent’s letter 
to the exhibition of 268 specimens of, I presume 
the writer means our readers to infer real fossil 
\ implements, by Mr. Wiltshire, on the reading of his 
\ paper before the Geologists’ Association. Now does 
¥ Mr. Tindall really mean to say that 268 genuine large 
} pointed implements, from gravel or any other geological 
deposit of Drift age, were then shown or even have 
been found in Yorkshire? I mean such old imple- 
ments as we talk about when we speak of the Abbe- 
ville, St. Acheul, and Hoxne implements. I was not 
present at that meeting, and therefore did not see the 
collection referred to, but I do not believe it contained 
ten—if, indeed, any such at all. And did not that 
number include arrowheads, flakes, and all sorts of 
things ?* 

That there may be no mistake about the sort of 

Large pointed imple- flint implements we mean, we annex a woodcut (¢ nat. 

ment (+ nat.size). 81ze) of the pointed kind, to which our remarks are 

restricted. 

Mr. Tindall tells us he has three pointed tools with ground points: will 
he kindly transmit them to us for inspection, and will he tell us were not 
these found on the surface or in gravesP If Mr. Tindall has three real 
fossil pointed implements, ground, he may pride himself on their unique- 
ness, and geologists on having got another evidence of the progress of the 
primitive men in their flint-chipping art, and a consequently additional 
proof of the primitiveness and antiquity of the unground implements; but 
they will be of no value to anybody unless the exact locality or conditions 
of the discovery is accurately narrated. 

Mr. Tindall further states, that the deeper down in the Yorkshire beds 
the more primitive the weapons; and that there is a regular stratigraphi- 
eal order of the advance of the workmanship. Will he tell us any one 
such section that will bear the inspection of ourselves, or Mr. Prestwich, 
Mr. Evans, or any other competent geologist. Will he furnish us with a 
list of the weapons found in Yorkshire by himself and_ others, and give 
the locality and stratigraphical and archeological conditions of each find ? 
In this way, if right, he will do science the greatest service; if wrong, 
en, the world will justify our scruples respecting the Yorkshire imple- 
ments. 


* In Mr. Wiltshire’s paper it is stated that he exhibited 268 flint implements found 
by Mr. Mortimer and his children at Fimber. These were therefore historic and not 
fossil implements at all.—sS. J. M. 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 344 


In these remarks we mean nothing whatever of personal reflection on 
Mr. Tindall, from whom, on all occasions when we have required it, we 
have received the greatest courtesy ; but we think he is mistaken in re- 
spect to the nature both of the implements he has in his own large collec- 
tion, as well as those he has seen in other collections. 

Our opinion is that the mass of any real (7.e. not forged) flint-implements 
or weapons found in Yorkshire belong to a later or more immediately pre- 
historic period than that of the Drift gravels, and may come from graves 
- or the débris of graves or be strewed on the soil. So far as I have seen, 
the Yorkshire large-pointed specimens are far smaller than even the small- 
est of the Abbeville and other true Drift examples, and it is highly desi- 
rable that the most reliable evidence be given to the world of their actual 
stratigraphical position. Mr. Tindall and other collectors and writers on 
this topic should remember, that where the practised eye has to judge of 
mere manipulatory results, the finest and most delicate differences may be 
of the greatest value. Let Mr. Tindall supply these facts. Let him give 
us the list of the Yorkshire implements and their localities, and give with 
each its position in the earth’s strata, or state what other relics were found 
with it in the same grave, and then we shall have something tangible to 
work upon, and shall not spoil good paper in vague surmises and vain as- 
sertions. I have no preconceived views to advocate, I only want to get at 
the truth; and I do not mind what side I take, provided only that it 
really be the right side; but I do think the questions involved in these 
considerations so important that the evidence should be most searchingly 
investigated in every case before it be accepted; and it would be worse 
than culpable for the editor of the ‘ Geologist’ knowingly to allow such a 
jumble of bistoric with fossil relics to pass unravelled. Science wants no 
man’s assertion: she requires all the evidence on this topic to be well sub- 
stantiated, and to be supported by abundant testimony.—S. J. Macxtn. | 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 


Sourn AvustTranta.— The main feature in this colony is the Mount 
Lofty Range, or Adelaide Hills, as they are indifferently called, which, 
about 30 miles in length from north to south, rise to an elevation of 
2400 feet, and wooded to their summit. Between these hills and the 
sea are the great Adelaide Plains, so notable for their great crops of wheat 
and other corn. The chief topics, however, for our notice, are the mineral 
products. The chief source of mineral wealth in South Australia is cop- 
per. The Burra-Burra mine has long been famous, while the astonishing 
yield of some of the mines on Yorke’s Peninsula brings them into perfect 
rivalry with it. Again, to the north of Spencer’s Gulf mineral discoveries 
of the highest value have been made, and only the requisite facilities for 
transport—labour and capital—are required to develop them. Itis in that 
district that the works of the Great Northern Mining Company are in 
operation. 

The Burra-Burra mines—the vast productiveness of which is of world- 
wide celebrity—are about 90 miles N.E. from Adelaide, and the works 
were commenced, in 1845, in the copper rock which projected from 
the surface, with ten miners, a smith, and a captain. They now yield 
employment directly to upwards of 1100 persons. Although the works were 

VOL. V. 2X 


346 THE GEOLOGIST. 


arried on in a very rude manner, the produce of the first six years 
a eee tons of ore ; mu although the bulk of that ore had to be carted 
over a hundred miles of road and then shipped to a market 16,000 miles dis- 
tant, the profit obtained was no less than £438,500 ; the company’s capital, 
in 1845, being the modest sum of £1500. ‘This prosperous career, however, 
received a check in 1851, when the discoveries of gold attracted all classes 
from their usual occupations to New South Wales and Victoria. In 1852 
the number of hands was then reduced to 366, and subsequently to 100; 
the pumping-engines were stopped, and the operations limited to the dry 
levels. ‘Chis continued until 1854, when the Governor of the Colony, Sir 
H. E. F. Young, introduced a number of Cornish miners ; and in January, 
1855, the pumpings and lower workings were resumed. Subsequent 
results have not been so brilliant as the first essays, as the increasing 
depth of the mine leaves less profit on the quantity extracted; but there 
is not, however, any falling off in the supply. The annual yield of ore for 
many years past has been from 10,000 to 13,000 tons, yielding from 22 to 
23 per cent. of copper; in round numbers about 2500 tons of the value of 
£225,000 per annum. 

The Kapunda mines are about 50 miles N.H. of Adelaide. The ore 
was first discovered jutting out of the soil, in 1843, during a search for 
some stray sheep, and the first loads were extracted in 1844. Three or 
four years later, a 30-inch cylinder pumping engine and crushing machinery 
were erected. A larger engine was erected in 1851, and both were em- 
ployed, the workings having attained a depth of 60 fathoms. In 1849 
smelting works were built; but in 1850 the gold attractions in Victoria 
caused most of the men to leave; and the smelting works were not resumed 
until 1855. The ores comprise almost every variety, as yellow ore, or 
pyrites, blue and green carbonates, muriates, grey and black sulphurets, 
oxides, bell-metal and peacock ores, and native or malleable copper. The 
percentage varies from 66 per cent. downwards. ‘The entire quantity 
of ore raised from the commencement of the mines to 1861 inclusive was 
35,280 tons of the average yield of 20 per cent. The quantity raised 
during the past year was 3306 tons of 18 per cent. average. All! the ores 
raised are now reduced to fine copper before shipment. In 1861, 595 tons 
were shipped, and £8713 were paid for fuel for the smelting works—timber 
alone being used. 

Whether the mineral wealth of Yorke’s Peninsula will prove equally 
considerable, time only can show; but mines there have the immense 
advantage of ready access to the seaboard. The most prolific mines 
opened are those at Wallaroo Bay. The Wallaroo mine was discovered 
in 1859, and in the following year four Cornish miners were employed. 
There are two principal workings ; in one the sinkings are to 20 fathoms, 
and a drive of 40 fathoms has been made into the lede, which, like the 
generality of the lodes in the district, runs from east to west. At the 
east end the lode is 4 feet wide; at the west end 15 or 16. At the 
10-fathom level drives have been made of more than a hundred fathoms. 
In the other workings the sinkings are to 25 fathoms, at the 20-fathom 
level drives of 115 fathoms, and at the 10-fathom level drives of 155 
fathoms, the lode varying from 4 to 20 feet in width. The total quantity 
of ore raised up to January, 1861, was 11,370 tons, of which 5370 have 
been shipped to Melbourne and Sydney, and about 6000 tons have been 
reduced in the smelting furnaces on the mine. The ores average 15 to 25 
per cent. in richness. The Moonta mines are situated about 10 miles dis- 
tant, south by west, and close to the coast. They have been only recently 
opened, but are of immense promise. The quantity of ore now being 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXTIBITION. 347 


raised is upwards of 100 tons per week, and the ore raised yields a higher 
percentage even than Wallaroo, but little by below 20 per cent., and a 
great deal yields 30 per cent. Near the surface the ore is chiefly green 
carbonate mixed with clay; but at 7 or 8 fathoms down it has changed 
to black and yellow ore, interspersed with large lumps of metallic copper, 
some of several pounds weight. The first discovery of these rich deposits 
wasin May, 1861. Next to the Wallaroo and Moonta mines, the most suc- 
cessful operations have been those of the ‘‘ New Cornwall Mining Associa- 
tion.” Their workings are 3 or 4 miles inland from the Wallaroo mines, and 
about 45 men are now employed. From the lodes intended to be worked 
by the engine 800 tons have been raised, some giving the high yield of 40 
per cent. At these works the ore will be reduced by a process recently 
patented by Mr. R. V. Rodda. The workings of the Duryea Mining Com- 
pany are about 3 miles from Kadina. At 18 feet below the surface green 
carbonate of copper was met with. At 20 feet below the surface drives 
were made in various directions, and in each copper was cut, in all cases 
dipping down; at 25 feet water was met with, another shaft was then 
commenced ; and at 10 feet a fine course of mundic, with black quartz, 
was met, beneath which was a fine lode of black ore, 7 feet to 84 feet 
thick, dipping to the south. Specimens were assayed, and gave 64 per 
cent. of copper. At 12 fathoms a drive was made from one shaft to 
the other in which 2 wingers were sunk, one 9 fathoms and the other 
4 fathoms. From these cut black ore has been raised, yielding from 52 to 
575 per cent. of copper. Several mines, besides the Great Northern 
Company, have been opened in the tract of country north of Port 
Augusta; but though several of them are of high promise, want of 
capital and the difficulty of getting the ore to a shipping place have pre- 
vented the development of active operations. The Great Northern mines 
are about 290 miles north of Port Augusta, and working operations com- 
menced in June, 1860, and have been prosecuted with considerable vigour 
and success. Some 600 or 700 tons of ore, extracted without machinery, 
have been shipped to this country. These have been the usual carbonates 
and grey ores giving a high produce—27 to 30—and some as high as 40 
per cent.; but the present deep levels are turning out sulphurets. 

Near Strathalbyn several mines producing copper and lead were opened 
many years prior to the discovery of gold in Victoria, and considerable 
returns made from them. More recently, the Wheal Ellen mine in the 
same locality, producing lead, silver, and copper, with gold in the gossans, 
has been discovered. In the Bremer country a number of mines were 
opened also before the discovery of gold in Victoria, many which gave 
great promise of large results. Working has been renewed in one of 
them—the Bremer mine. The Kanmatoo mines on the estate of the 
South Australian Company bave been worked for many years past, and 
large quantities of ore raised. Smelting furnaces for the ore have been 
raised in Scott’s Creek, some four miles distant, and have tended largely 
to increase the profits of the undertaking. The whole of this district is 
highly mineralized. 

Grotoeicat Institute oF Avustri1a.—This. institution was founded by 
the ohne Emperor, Francis Joseph I., in 1859, under the directorship of 
Dr. Haidinger. The local directors are MM. Hauer, Lipold, and Foetterle. 
The staff of assistant-geologists consists of M. D. Stur, Dr. Stache, M. 
Henry Wolf, Baron Andrian-Werberg, Dr. Stoliczka, and M. Chas. Paul. 
The archivist is Count Marschall von Burgholzhausen ; the director of the 
chemical laboratory, M. Hauer; the librarian, M. Adolphe Senoner ; and 
Dr. Hornes, the director of the Imperial Mineralogical Museum of 
Vienna, is an associate member of the staff. 


348 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The province of the Institute is to collect materials for elucidating the 
geology of the Austrian Empire, the order of its labours being :—1. The 
geological exploration of the whole Austrian Empire. 2. The collecting 
of specimens and arranging them in a Central Museum. 3. Chemical 
analyses to be carried on with the minerals collected. 4. Chemical 
analyses to be extended also to the interest of mining and smelting ores. 
5. Geological maps to be constructed and published. 6. Publications to 
be carried on, giving the results of the work of exploration. 7. A library 
and archives to be opened to assist the studies and labours of the persons 
employed. ; 

A yearly grant of 36,000 florins (about £2760) is appropriated for these 
purposes. At first the Museum was placed in the palace of the Imperial 
Mint: but the collections soon increasing, it was necessary to remove it 
to another more convenient place, and one of the palaces of Prince Liech- 
tenstein was rented for the purpose. An extraordinary grant of 10,000 fl. 
was devoted in 1849 to the first arrangements, and two other special 
grants, the latter of them to the same amount, have been since passed for 
the expense of publication of Dr. Hornes’ ‘ Fossile Mollusken.’ 

The articles sent to the Exhibition are :— 

I. Geological Maps.—There are three different sets of Geological Maps. 
They are all grounded on the publications of the Military Geographical 
Institute and the field-work of the General Quartermaster Staff. The fol- 
lowing are finished in the greatest detail the published maps will allow, on 
the scale of one inch to 24 English miles (2°25225) :—1. Upper and Lower 
Austria. 2. Salzburg. 3. Styria and Ulyria. 4. Bohemia. 

The following are general maps, executed on the scale of one inch to 43 
miles:—5. Tyroland Vorarlberg. 6. Lombardy and Venetia. 7. Hungary 
and Croatia. 8. The Banat of Temesvar. 

The following, also general maps, but executed on the still smaller scale 
of one inch to 63 English miles (cartes routiéres) :—9. Transylvania. 10. 
Galicia. 

The lists of the colours and signs employed in geological maps necessa- 
rily gives the order and succession of the recognized divisions of the earth’s 
strata ; and thus, although designed for one purpose, they manifestly 
effect another. The following general view of names of deposits and rocks 
refers to the ten excellent maps exhibited by the Austrian Geological In- 
stitute, explanatory of the colours and signs employed in these maps, thus 
gives a valuable list of the divisions and subdivisions of the Austrian beds, 
which we think it well worth while to find a place for in this journal. 

_By comparing such lists with others, such as that of our own Geological 
Survey, students will get a fair idea of the comparative synchronisms of the 
various periods indicated in these classifications. The Austrian list shows 
no less than 174 different shades of colours, partly pure, partly combined 
with signs, particularly of differently coloured lines in various directions. 
The same tint gives the general idea of sameness of rock or deposit; the 
numbers express more detailed references. It may here be observed that 
in the Austrian list, beginning with Alluvium, the order of names denotes 
the strata following each other in a descending order, down to 96 and 97 (the 
sandstones, slates, and limestones of the Carboniferous series). But M. 
Barrande’s Silurian rocks of Bohemia, from B to H, or from No. 98 (the 
Pribram slates) to No. 112 (the Hlubocep strata), follow an ascending 
order in the Austrian list, but have been transposed into descending 
order in that we have printed at page 350; the rest, from No. 113 to 
No, 127, is again descending; and then the massive and mostly crys- 
talline and eruptive rocks from. granite, No. 128 to No. 160 (extinet 
volcanos), are again arranged in ascending order; while numbers 160 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 349 


to 174 are devoted to various references. It should be observed, also, 
that the arrangement of the consecutive numbers is not of a kind to 
imply, even for the first 97 numbers, the necessity that every subse- 
quent stratum really should be inferior in position to every preceding 
one. On the contrary, several of them in one map may be employed only 
for a system of deposits, while, in another, geologists have succeeded in 
ascertaining a number of consecutive members perfectly distinguishable 
from one another. In some maps of distant regions the same sign has 
been casually employed for quite different rocks or strata; and from these 
observations it will be seen that the Austrian geologists do not pretend 
to give a geological system, consistent throughout within itself, as might 
be done in a treatise on geology, but merely the result of their studies in 
their present state, as they are drawn up and brought to a general survey 
for the present International Exhibition. 


1 g /(Alluvium. 43 Hippurite limestone. 
2 .& | Peat. Lomb. Ven. Hung. 
3 5 ) Caleareous tufa. 44, Rudistes limestone. 
4 eS Calcareous tufa. Hungary. | 45 Radiolite limestone. Teta 
5 Erratic deposits. Galici | 46 Comen slate. 
6 € | Erratic blocks. Austria. | 47 Radiolite dolomite. 
7 -& } Moraines. Styria, Cariuthia. | 48° Caprotina limestone. Istria. 
8 = | Loam. , Hungary. 
9A Gra and conglomerate. 49 Me Baculite beds. 
10 Gravel and conglom. Bohemia. 50) B Planer. : 
11 Freshwater limestone. Hun. Gal. S oe eure [Se RSE 
12 ~—‘| Freshwater quartz. Hungary. 53 2 A | ee a 
13 Freshwater limestone. Bohemia. 54 — | Ganlt 1 Sane 
ied Geival: ault and Seewer. 2 iyrol 
15 3 Goneecercand) 58 Spatangus limestone. : 
16 op Ome sia ely 56 Neocomian dolomite. aie 
Z. 22 ae Hungary. | 57 Marl. 5 SF 
ey | cetehium beds. 58 Teschen slate Galicia 
18 =& | Cerithium limestone. B re yer : 
19 & | Sand and sandstone. he penne. sandstone, 
20 MS Leitha limestone. Austria a ce ce SEMAN 
2] Leitha conglomerate. and 62 BL Ae a He Posi pen ant 
29 Bagew clay. ieene. iancone, Majolica. Lomb. Ven. 
23 \ Lignite measures. Styria. | 63 Wealden. Austria. 
24 Menilite slate. Austria. | 64 White limestone. Austria. 
25 a Menslite slate. Galicia, | 65 Plassen limestone. Aust. Istr. 
26 § | Freshwater formation. Hungary. __(Stramberg series). Banat. 
 ¢ Younger Carpathian 66 Vils series. Hungary. 
07 sandstone: Galicia. | 67 @ | Klaus series. _ Austria. 
Mee Sandctone. Tyrol, | 68 “ ( Klaus series with 
29 © | Gravel and clay. Hungary. S hornstone. Hungary. 
30 «© Nummulitic sandstone. Austria. | 69 Woltschach limestone. Istria. 
31 < = | Conglomerate. Istria. | 70 Crinoid limestone. Austria. 
32 = 5 ) Nummulitic limestone. 71 Oolitic limestone, Istria, 
33 =™ | Main nummulitic eo ae Lomb. Ven. 
34 5 2 { Preshwater deposits. sylv. | 79 Tlierlatz and Adneth series. 
385 = 2 | Cosina series. Istria, "3 Variegated marl. 
36 AG |Conglomerate. Transylvania. A Racatenicerine: 
37 =, {| Marly sandstone. Gosbahais 75 ,, | Dachstein limestone. 
88 3 | Limestone. 5 eral 76 -& 4 Dachstein dolomite. 
39 © ) Conglomerate. Ausiti. | 77 | Gresten limestone. Austria. 
40 $ | Scaglia. Lomb. Venetia. | 78 Gresten dolomite. Lomb. 
41 5 pesoninn sandstone. Tetra: 79 airesten Rauchwacke, Ven. 
42 Senonian limestone. § laeaie Ia! Gresten sandstone. 


350 THE GEOLOGIST. 


81 Raibl and St. Cas- Carinthia. | 128 Extinct voleanos. Bohemia 
sian series. Carniola. | 129 Basaltic tufa. 
82 St. Cassian series. Tyr. Ven. | 130 Basalt. Hungary. 
83 Grossdorn series. Carniola. | 131 Basalt. 
84, Hallstatt limestone. 132 Trachytic tufa and Banat 
85 Hallstatt dolomite. 133 conglomer ate. flipancele 
86 { | Esino and Hallstatt series. Tyrol. | 184 Rhyolite ida 
87 & )\ Triassic dolomite. Hungary. | 185 © | Grey trachyte. Hungary. 
88 Guttenstein limestone. 136 at Phonolite. Bohemia. 
89 Guttenstein dolomite. 187 5 Greenstone trachyte. Hun. Tran. 
90 Guttenstein Rauchwacke. 138 i ‘Porphyritic tufa. i Styria 
91 Radstatt limestone. SARE 139 = Dioritic tufa. vie. 
92 Radstatt slate. fepiaeaec|( LEO g | Augite porphyry tufa. ‘Tyrol. 
93 Werfen slate. ie = ee es Hungary. 
94 Old red sandstone. Bohemia, | 14% § | Augite porphyry. Tyrol. 
95. Old red sandstone. Galicia, | 148 >. | Melaphyre tufa. Lomb. Ven. 
96 & 2 f Sandstone and slate ae Hyg 
97 es 145 = Melaphyre. Hungary. 
ae Limestone. 146 8 | Porphyry. Tyrol. 
98 Hlubocep. H 147 © | Green porphyry. Bohemia. 
99 Branik. = G 148 8 | Porphyry. Bohemia, Carinthia. 
100 g | Koneprus. sl, & 149 % | Gabbro. Hungary. 
101° | Kuhelbad.: Sirs 150 & | Serpentine. 
102 a Litten. s NT 151 .€ | Greenstone. 
103 6 | Kossow. & i 152 ¢ | Aphanite. Bohemia. 
104 1s ea sia ki oo 153 2 Diorite. 
105 £2 Vinicaltostommitz (4 154 Diorite. Tyrol. 
Shy Wahoran, =e Daz | 155 Diorite. Austria, Banat. 
106 | Brda. sls 156 ‘| Eclogite. Styria. 
107 = | Rokycan. £| 2 Amphibolite. Carinth. Bohemia. 
108 -= | Komorau. | ep" Md" | 157 Syenitic porphyr Boh. Ban 
109 = | Krusnahora = 158 a +4 Beene 
iO | Given, fi Cate 


ie 159 Granitite. Bohemia. 


111 Pribram greywacke. 160 Granite. 


112 Pribram slate. B te cea 

it KG - : _¢ Coal or lignite. 

ae iE Ee } Bohemia. | 162 Pseudovoleanie localities. Boh. 

115 & ) Sandstone, slate. Aust. Styr. i Se ee Eransyly. 

116 “ ( Limestone. Hungary. ine g ee oe Galicia. 

17 2 (Clay-slate. 166 S Slate-clay. Bohemia. 

118 © Chloritic slate. 167 & Polishing slate 

119 © | Talcose slate. 1630 Cee j Tienes 

120 & | Amphibolic slate. hy Genes, ae 

121 § | Calcareous mica-slate. Salzburg. | 179 = ae ee AviciBoh 
Ps Carinth. Hung. | y7] 5 eee : : 

¢ oO . aly - =: 

ee ro ean ee 172 Magnetic iron-ore. | Bohemia. 

194, 5 G nee ae 173 Porcelain earth. Austria. 

125 : | Granulite. Austr. Boh. Mie Veins and massa 9 tots Bol 

126 ‘ | Greisen. Raker 

127 & \ Quartzite. ae 


Il. The Publications of the I. R. Geological Institute.—These are the— 

1. ‘Abhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt,’ of which three 
volumes are published, in which are contributions by Prof. A. E. Reuss, 
Prof. Ch. F. Peters, John Kudernatsch, Prof. F. L. Zekeli, Prof. C. 
Ritter von Kttingshausen, and Dr. Ch. J. Andrae, in vols. i. and ii. ; vol. iii. 
forming part of Dr. M. Hornes’ ‘ Fossil Mollusca of the Tertiary Vienna 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. Bol 


Basin.’ It is distributed as a free gift or on terms of exchange to 130 
Austrian and 170 foreign institutes or persons. 

2. ‘ Jahrbuch der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt,’ of which nine volumes 
have been issued, containing contributions by members of the Institute 
and others, on the Geology of Austria, and kindred subjects, and compris- 
ing also the Proceedings of the Institute at its meetings, and reports of 
the exploratory excursions. The ‘Jahrbuch’ is distributed like the ‘ Ab- 
handlungen,’ but on a somewhat more extended scale, to 473 Austrian and 
292 foreign institutes or individual persons. 

Ill. A Collection of Crystals of Salts (M. Hauer), obtained in the 
chemical laboratory of the Institute. 

IV. A Collection of Specimens of Fossil Fuel (M. Foetterle), consisting of 
peat, lignite, brown coal, black coal, and anthracite, of different periods, from 
modern deposits, through the Miocene and Hocene strata, chalk, and lias, 
down to the true coal-measures, and from localities in Bohemia, Moravia, 
and Silesia, Galicia, Hungary, Transylvania, the Military Border, Croatia, 
and Hsclavonia, and along the Alps, from the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, 
Salzburg, Upper and Lower Austria, Stiria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Dal- 
matia. 

The collection of Specimens of Fossil Fuel was collected by the Im- 
perial Geological Institute at the request of the Austrian Central Exhibi- 
tion Committee. Letters were issued to the owners and superintendents 
of all the mines in the Empire, and the Institute was thus largely supplied 
with specimens, so that the exhibited collection fairly represents this de- 
partment of Austrian mineral wealth. 

The number of tons of coal raised in 1860 in the different provinces, as 
represented in the list which accompanies the specimens, is— 


Tons. 

Bohemia . : 5 ; ; ‘ : ; . 692,840 
Moravia and Silesia; ; k 2 ; : - 719,300 
Galicia. : : : : : : : 06,000 
Hungary and Banat : P : , : . 297,100 
Transylvania, Military Border, Croatia, Slavonia . Hy SLOLSO 
Austria. i: i é : ‘ ; P «vd 21,260 
Styria ; : 5 : . ; : - . 112,080 
Carinthia . i ; : : ‘ ; : yO aio® 
Carniola . : ; p : ‘ : - é 7370 
Dalmatia . 2 : : : : ‘ : 6500 

Total 2,059,120 


The total amount statistically registered being about 3°5 millions of tons. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Corrmswotp Crius.—July 23rd.—The meeting took place at Frocester 
Station, whence the members proceeded to the famous section of Frocester 
Hill locally known as the Old Quarr. On arrival there, some labourers, 
under the direction of Mr. EK. Witchell, cleared away to some extent the 
rubble which covers the thin ‘‘ammonite-bed.” Frocester Hill affords 
one of the finest exposures of the Inferior Oolite in the country, and 
yields to research an abundance of the choicest fossils; so that some of 


852 THE GEOLOGIST. 

the most distinguished Continental savants have visited it for comparison 
with the foreign Jurassic sections. It comprises the ‘ cynocephala 
stage” of Dr. Lycett. The party were soon at work on the “ ammonite- 
bed,” and, after exhuming numerous characteristic specimens, struck 
off toward Peaked Down to examine the sands, which are of considerable 
thickness there. Geology and archeology as sister sciences so blend to- 
gether at certain points, that it is difficult to apportion the peculiar pro- 
vince of each; our Cotteswoldians, however, came to a halt at Coaley 
Hill tumulus, which, like a weir across a stream, effectually divided them 
into two currents of geologists and archeologists—the latter plunging 
with professional ardour into the cairn and its traditions; a few, we 
were told, even dexterously wriggled their way into the bosom of the 
tomb itself; while the geologists, with that gravity which befits students 
of the ‘‘ exact sciences,’ carefully wended along that line of neutral 
ground yclept the Upper Lias sands by the many, but which has been 
stripped of its nationality by some, and associated with the Lower Oolitic 
group. Their route lay across a thickness of about 200 feet of these pecu- 
har sands, and brought them by way of Lorigdown and Peaked Down to 
Dursley, where dinner-hour brought the scattered members together at the 
Bell Hotel. Some papers of interest were read: 1. By Dr. Lycett, of 
Scarborough, “ On Ammonites opalinus ;” 2. By Mr. John Jones, “ On the 
Land and Fluviatile Mollusca of the Gloucester District.” The latter is 
an elaborate paper, containing the observations of the author during a pe- 
riod of twenty years, and is of great value to those pursuing that branch 
of natural history. 

Duptry GroLoaicaL AND ScrentiIFIc Socirty.—It is with much plea- 
sure we convey to our readers the agreeable information of the establishment 
of a Geological Society in the classic neighbourhood of Dudley, where many 
of the finest organisms of the Silurian rocks have been exhumed. This 
well-known locality once boasted a valuable collection of fossils, and had 
also a society which did good work, for a short time, in developing the 
geological features of the district ; but the museum has long since passed 
from public view, and the society has become defunct. We observe that 
the newly established club is not merely a resuscitation of the society once 
existing, but is cast on a much more comprehensive plan, and will include 
all that belongs to the natural history and antiquities of the midland coun- 
ties, but particularly that part which lies within easy access of the old town 
of Dudley. - The inaugural meeting of the society was held on the 15th of 
August, under distinguished local patronage ; and a very interesting day 
must have been spent on the occasion. ‘The party, after a public meeting 
and luncheon, at which Lord Lyttelton presided, visited the Silurian beds 
at the well-known Wren’s Nest Hill, and made a rapid survey of the pre- 
sent limestone workings. After this they had an opportunity of inspecting 
the ruins of the Castle Hill and the Priory grounds ; and in the evening, 
through the kindness of the Karl of Dudley, the vast caverns beneath the 
Castle Hill were brilliantly illuminated. It may be mentioned that a canal 
runs through these vast subterranean workings, and well-kept paths enable 
visitors to walk through the caverns with perfect ease. The banks of 
this canal were lighted up with innumerable candles, as were also the vast 
arches in various parts of the caverns; and the strange aspect of the boat- 
men as they plied their rafts along this Stygian pool, and the weird figures 
of attendants in uncouth garb, who lit up the largest arches and caverns 
with coloured fires, presented an extraordinary scene. Mr. F. Smith, his 
lordship’s agent, gave the party a full description of the caverns, and of the 
mode by which the limestone has been excavated. ; 


NOTES AND QUERTES. 353 


The society already numbers upwards of 200 members, including many 
well-known scientific men, who have rendered good service to science by 
their local investigations. We augur well for the new society, if its pro- 
moters only follow up their successful starting, by doing really practical 
work. We have no doubt it will soon become a useful institution for the 
important district over which its operations will extend. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


A Fossitirfrous Cave at Mrzina.—Another of these interesting 
storehouses of the relics of the Pleistocene age was brought to light last 
week through the researches of Captain Spratt, R.N., whose scientific 
Jabours in connection with the geology of these islands are so well known 
and appreciated. Vague rumours prevailed some years ago of the existence 
of a cave of this kind at Meliha, which coming to the ears of the late 
lamented Sir William Reid, he directed the attention of Lord Ducie and 
Captain Spratt to the spot, but nothing then could be found. A fossil 
hippopotamus tooth in the possession of Signor Pace, an Italian gentleman 
residing here, said to have been obtained from Meliha, led Captain Spratt 
to institute closer and stricter inquiries, and, while in the Bay of Meliha 
with his ship a few days ago, he succeeded in finding the remains of 
a fossiliferous cave at a short distance from the village church. It had 
been, unfortunately, almost destroyed to make way for a road, and the 
rubble used to fill up the interstices of a wall; but sufficient remains of 
hippopotamus bones and teeth were dug up to indicate its having been of a 
similar character to the Meilach cave near Crendi, regarding which we 
lately published some interesting particulars from the pen of Dr. Leith 
Adams, of the 22nd Regiment.— Malta Times, July 17. 

Human Rematns.—In June, 1747, the body of a woman was found six 
feet deep in a peat-moor in the isle of Axholm, in Lincolnshire. The an- 
tique sandals on her feet afforded evidence of her having been been buried 
there for many ages. Can any of our readers give information as to what 
has become of these relics, and whether any other very ancient human 
remains have been found in the district ? 

In a turbary on the estate of the Earl of Moira, in Ireland, many years 
ago, a human body was dug up a foot deep in gravel, covered with eleven 
feet of moss; the body was completely clothed, and the garments seemed, 
it is said, to be all made of hair. It would be highly desirable to get in- 
formation respecting such finds, especially whether they have been pre- 
served in any collection. 

Deer 1n Enctanp.—Mr. Richard Howse, in the committee’s address, 
p- 190, Trans. Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club, vol. v., p. iti. (1862), ¢.e. 
from the paper read in 1861, makes the following statement :—‘ On a 
recent visit to Newcastle, Professor Owen stated that the former was the 
first and only proof he had seen of the occurrence of the Moose in the fos- 
siliferous deposits of England.” As the word Moose alone here might 
lead to a natural mistake, we think it right to observe that we believe the 
specimens referred to belonged to the Elk or Moose (Cervus alces, Linn.). 

hey do not belong to the Wapiti (Cervus canadensis). 


i) 


VOL. V. Z, 


B54 


REVIEWS. 


The Laws which regulate the Deposition of Lead Ore in Veins, illustrated 
by the Examination of the Geological Structure of the Mining Dis- 
tricts of Alston Moor. By W. Wallace. London: Edw. Stanford, 
1861. 


Tt is some time since we received the handsome book produced by Mr. 
Wallace on the mineral district of Alston Moor, and in the interim many 
periodicals have passed eulogiums on it, which it well deserves. The 
volume in our hands has not however been laid aside, but in truth it in- 
volved careful reading, and that involved time—an article not always plenti- 
fully at our disposal. It has been thus only from time to time that we 
have fairly read and examined Mr. Wallace’s labours, and our meed of 
praise, therefore, is not the less valuable from its being tardy. Even now 
other urgent demands upon our space restrict our notice to the shortest 
limits ; but at a season when mining and mineral products are displayed so 
prominently before the world, and men interested in commercial pursuits 
are congregated in London from all parts of the world, it is only right and 
just to bring this excellent literary production under their notice. The 
opportunity, therefore, is seasonable. We are informed the book has 
already had a good sale, and we hcpe our remarks may cause an additional 
incoming to the exchequer of the author, who must have been at a con- 
siderable expense to have so profusely illustrated his work with the clearest 
and finest chromo-lithograph sections, plans, and maps. 

To collect, arrange, and harmonize the experience of many generations 
on any subject is indeed an arduous and difficult task, and it has been well 
remarked that it is peculiarly so with everything relating to metallic veins 
and metalliferous deposits. In the first place, the information required is 
too often either wanting or defective, and the ideas of miners, commercial 
and scientific men all vary, in many degrees, according to the point of view 
from which the aspect is taken. Large profits may be derived from a poor 
mine when the price of metal is high, and rich mines may not pay when 
prices in the metal market are low. Large profits might accrue from lead- 
ore scattered in the sides of a soft vein, while a far greater amount of 
metal would not cover the expense of extraction from a hard one; and all 
these classes of circumstances naturally affect the views of those who are 
practically engaged in mining and tinge the opinions they offer. Fortu- 
nately for us, this debatable ground is not our territory. From the geolo- 
gical standpoint in the present case, we look to that more interesting topic, 
how the mineral veins were produced, how they exist in the strata of the 
earth’s crust, and those other natural phenomena they present, which lead 
to a knowledge of their past history and their present conditions. Mr. 
Wallace begins his book at the right end. He gives us first six chapters 
on the formation and geological structure of the mining districts of Alston 
Moor, in which he treats of the laws which have regulated the deposition 
of the mountain limestone in Great Britain, the elevation of the rocks of 
Alston Moor to the position they now occupy, and the laws which have 
regulated the denudation of the country, the laws of the formation and 
direction of veins, and the formation and direction of east and west veins, 
with descriptions of the principal ; and then he enters into special details of 
the Alston Moor and Coal Cleugh cross veins, and the Quarter Point veins 
of Alston Moor. 

He next gives us ten chapters on the laws which regulate metalliferous 
deposits, as illustrated by an examination of the lead veins or lodes of 


REVIEWS. 355 


Alston Moor. In these he argues, that as lead ore is not deposited through- 
out the whole extent of the veins, they have not always been filled with 
minerals or metallic substances; the deposition must therefore be the result 
of certain antecedents ; and he infers that the laws which have regulated the 
distribution of metallic ores may be different from those relating to the 
origination of the metal. Two theories have been proposed to account for 
the origin of ore-veins: the one supposes them to be segregations of me- 
tallic particles from the surrounding rocks, the other regards them as de- 
posits by sublimation from great depths and connected with voleanic in- 
fluences. It is certain, however, that the Jaws which have regulated the 
distribution of ore in veins may be of a very different character from those 
connected with its origination; the former may be mechanical, the latter, 
if metals are substances compounded from certain elements unknown in a 
separate state, must be chemical. If they are simple substances which 
have risen from the interior of the earth as gaseous emanations, then the 
accumulation of the ore in certain portions of the veins may have taken 
place after its deposition sparsely throughout the whole extent of the frac- 
tures in the rocks; if the metals are derived from rocks in which their ex- 
istence cannot be detected, then the compounding and localization of the 
ore may have been effected contemporaneously. The experiments of Bee- 
querel and others have shown that metals in solution may be crystallized 
and combined with other substances by electro-chemical agency, forming 
minerals exactly similar to those found in nature ; but interesting as those 
experiments are, they render no assistance to the practical miner in guiding 
him to the deposits of metallic ores so irregularly distributed in the veins ; 
they relate more to crystallography and mineralogy than to practical 
mining, for crystals of various kinds are found where none of the metals 
exist. No kind of mineral in the veins at Alston Moor varies so much in 
quantity in different parts of the same stratum as lead-ore. It is found 
plentifully deposited with quartz, carbonates and sulphides of lime and 
iron, fluorspar, barytes, oxides of iron, black-jack, etc., and it is frequently 
absent in the same stratum when the veins contain large quantities of some 
one or other of these minerals; hence its deposition is not dependent on 
the presence or absence of any of those mmerals, and it is evident that 
whatever caused their deposition has not prevented the operation of those 
causes which regulated the deposit of lead-ore. The variation in amount 
of lead-ore in the same vein and in the same stratum or kind of rock be- 
ing greater than that of any other mineral, the law of such variation is 
more likely to be ascertainable in its case than in any other. In Alston 
Moor the veins have been most productive in situations furthest removed 
from plutonie action; the richest deposits having been effected in the 
upper part of the mountain limestone, where no igneous rocks are found 
Bithen in the form of dykes, or of sheets intermingled horizontally with the 
stratified rocks. The lower part of the strata in that district includes a 
stratum of basaltic greenstone as well as a basaltic dyke, but the veins 
generally have contained very little lead-ore, where these rocks have formed 
their sides or walls—a circumstance, however, we should think might very 
probably be sometimes due to the sublimation or driving off of the lead by 
the heat of the injected lava in the cases of volcanic dykes. 

So far as the Alston Moor district is concerned, Mr. Wallace thinks 
there is nothing to support the theory that the lead is due to exhalations 
from below, or to matter injected in a fluid state among the consolidated 
sedimentary rocks. The nodules of carbonate of iron, so often found ar- 
ranged in layers of beds of shale, have generally undergone some degree 
of contraction in the interior ; often the exterior has been consolidated to a 


306 THE GEOLOGIST. 


degree sufficient to limit the shrinking of the central parts of the mass. 
Tnto these cracks sulphides of lead, zinc, and iron, copper pyrites and cer- 
tain other minerals of a different class have not unfrequently been intro- 
duced. In such cases it seems exceedingly improbable that those sub- 
stances could be derived from exhalations from beneath. There can be, 
on the other hand, no doubt that their component parts have come by in- 
filtration from without. It is also evident, that these bodies or their com- 
ponent parts were in a soluble state when they entered the cavities formed 
by the cracks of the nodules. Infiltrations occur also in the cavities left 
by the decomposition of fossil shells, and in those formed in various other 
ways. At St. Agnes, Cornwall, crystals of feldspar have been removed 
from elvan and replaced by peroxide of tin. ‘‘ Instances of this kind,” 
Mr. Wallace says, ‘‘ are of a deeply important character, and are almost 
conclusive that metals or the elements of metals are diffused, perhaps in 
varying proportions, throughout the whole mass of all kinds of rocks. 
They indicate, probably, the existence of metals in veins as the result of 
’ combinations and changes which cannot be always, if indeed ever, directly 
connected with volcanic influences; and although the quantities of metal 
infiltrated are infinitesimally small when compared with deposits in veins, 
they may be regarded as instuntie crucis, indicating, at least, the direction 
which the inquiry ought to take.” Taking up the consideration of the 
conditions connected with the Rampgill vein, where the lead ore occurs 
in the greatest intensity, he notices that the richest portions are at the in- 
tersections of the Quarter Point veins, and comes to the conclusion that 
the functions of the conditions differ from each other, those connected 
with the rich portion being favourable to a circulation of water, the other 
not so. He then proceeds to discuss the laws regulating the descent of 
water below the earth’s surface, and the deposition of vein-minerals, such 
as carbonate of lime, and barytes, in the open spaces in veins. Then the 
connection is traced between the laws regulating the descent and circula- 
tion of fluids and the deposition of lead-ore in the vems of Alston 
Moor. He next follows up the connection between the laws of hydrous 
agency and the deposition of lead-ore in veins on the east side of the Trent 
river, those traversing Mountain Middle Fell, and elsewhere. This is 
followed by investigation of the connections of the laws of hydrous agency 
with the deposits in the ‘ lower beds,” and, considering that metallic ores 
in veins traversing clay-slate and granite, must be equally subject to the 
same agency, he devotes a chapter to them. 

Dwelling on the facts, that the richest mines are in decomposed granite, 
and that metallic ores are sometimes found in the joints of thai rock, as 
is the case in the long-celebrated Carclase tin-mine, and indeed through- 
out the whole granite district of St. Austell (Cornwall), he remarks the 
correspondence as being very striking between the more decomposable 
parts of the Great Limestone in Alston Moor, and the decomposable gra- 
nite, in that instance being associated in the former case with pure and 
rich deposits of lead-ore, and in the latter with tin-ore of excellent quality ; 
and comments on the effects of atmospheric exercises as exhibited in all 
mineral veins generally, and in gold and silver mines more especially, sin- 
gling out the remarkable mine of Potosi as a prominent instance of the 
latter. He notices also the association of dissimilar rocks, and considers 
that im some instances the intruded rock may have been the source from 
which the metallic ore has been derived. In his concluding remarks he 
considers that from the evidence brought together it would appear that 
either lead or some basifying principle must enter in varying proportions 
as a component part of the rocks of the Alston Moor district, or some still 


REVIEWS. 357 


more elementary substances, from which it is formed by the laws of che- 
mical combination as yet unknown; and that there is no reason why lead 
and zine may not be at the present time in course of deposition wherever 
the conditions are favourable. In the Tyne bottom mines there is reason 
to suppose that the lead-ore has been deposited on the flats at a compara- 
tively recent period, and long posterior to the glacial epoch. Such is 
a summary of the principal features of Mr. Wallace’s book,—a work cha- 
racterized by great pains and careful attention, and which we can but 
think must prove highly useful to those engaged in this special class of in- 
quiries. 


On the Failure of Geological Attempts in Greece, prior to the Epoch of 
Alexander. By Julius Schvarez, Ph.D., F.G.5S., Corr. Mem. Ethn. 
Soc., ete. ete. 4to. London: Taylor and Francis. 1862. 


In the ‘ Geologist’ for March, 1862, we had the pleasure to call the at- 
tention of our readers to some works on Geology and Ethnology which 
had been published by Dr. Schvarez in the Hungarian and Greek lan- 
guages. These works, translated into the English language with a mental 
force and vigour which almost makes our geologists and biologists blush 
for their laurels, naturally attracted much attention and admiration, which 
was heightened when the author, two months ago, appeared personally 
before an English public to contribute his reflections on the progress 
which Geology and Ethnology had made in classical times, prior to the 
development of that school of biological thought, which was sanctioned 
by the auspices of Alexander, and promoted by the researches of the 
Stagirite. 

Such considerations as these, though condemned by the healthy English 
mind of John Hunter,* have led Dr. Schvarez to succeed in proving that 
many of the beliefs of the early Greeks rested rather on a vague know- 
ledge of geological facts than on any subjective excogitations, working 
within and by the consciousness of Greek thought. The eternity, or at 
least the long continuance of the idéa, that other races pre-existed to the 
historical self-styled awtochthones of Hellas, is proved by Dr. Schvarez’s 
facts. The withering rebuke which he gives to the school of thinkers who 
are self-styled “ practical men’’—notoriously the most unpractical and the 
most impracticable with which a thinker can deal—we‘transcribe verbatim. 
The philosophers of the Socratic school certainly make a sorry figure when 
limned by Dr. Schvarcz, who has painted them in the darkest colours. 
The true spirit of a conscientious biological positive philosopher is however 
displayed by him, in the subjoined eloquent passage :— 

** Men are to be met with in our own days whose mental structure exclu- 
sively fits them to observe from moral points of view,—men who are unable 
to rejoice at cosmical or metaphysical acquirements—who ask, pace for 
pace in their learned deliberation, for an application to practical advan- 
tage. To speak with men of this description upon scientific matters would 


* “People who stand up for autiquity, and want to carry all knowledge as far back 
as the first teachers, which knowledge really does not belong to them, instead of raising 
their character rather injure it. . .. If the ancients really understood any piece of know- 
ledge that we look upon as modern, and if their account be really so dark and imperfect 
that there is no understanding them without previously understanding the subject, it 
shows that they were much more stupid in not transmitting to us intelligibly what they 
knew, than if they had not understood the subject at all.”’—Hunter, J., ‘ Essays and 
Observations on Natural History,’ edited by R. Owen, 8vo, 2 vols., London, 1861, 
vol. i. p. 369. 


308 THE GEOLOGIST. 


prove to no purpose, for such a people are born so that they do not feel the 
needs of science. They will never be convinced that the aim of the latter, 
when it looks for the distances of planets, is nothing else than to bring us 
to comprehend both our position and lot in space ; they wall never be con- 
vinced that a veritable scholar may study such things merely, therefore, be- 
cause he desires to know them; on the contrary, their belief was, is, and 
will remain for ever, that the student who proceeds this way must either 
pant for some personal renown, or must be a madman, or else will end by 
putting his brains upon the rack about a method of connecting the celestial 
bodies with the earth by a telegraph; in short, their belhef will always be 
that the student who deals with these subjects, if not ambitious and not 
crazed, must have a mind to make merchandise of them, and so to treat 
them that they may yield to him a profit. They will naturally give a par- 
tial and defective definition of the ‘ profit’ every earnest student of science 
is working to obtain, a profit which differs in every essential part from tlie 
one which is to their minds the only road to human greatness. To this 
class belonged Socrates, and him from whom we learn his historical en- 
gagement better than from Plato, Xenophon himself. 

“The ancient Greek natural philosophers were reproached by Socrates 
with being unable to produce, if occasionally required, wind or rain, ete., 
however they strain their wit in refinements about the origin of all these 
phenomena. According to the judgment of this ‘ wisest of all mortals,’ it 
would be sufficient to cultivate astronomy only as far as it may serve to 
the recognition of the parts of a year, month, or day ; and this knowledge 
might be obtained through a conversation with town-criers and steersmen. 
‘o go further than this, to extend the ken of our intellectual powers to 
the planetary and cometary orbits, he deemed not only superfluous, but 
even dangerous. From geometry, likewise, he permitted only so much to 
be acquired as might be necessary for the affairs of purchase, bargain, ven- 
dition, and for the surveying of fields. To stray into problems of a more 
complicated nature would consume human life in vain. 

“We may thus regard him asa mere advocate of practical life, who 
spent his own in analysing the errors of almost all classes of human society, 
and incessantly pursuing the phantom of what he thought might be termed 
‘virtue,’ without ever being able to feel, in spite of his ‘ spiritual mid- 
wifery,’ any nearer approach to the perception of wherein, after all, this 
‘virtue’ consists. 

‘““We may regard him as a mere political agitator, who never attained 
to the dignity of a true moral philosopher; for the latter will, when con- 
tinuing the direction pointed out by his own frame of mind, never assail 
those who cultivate the other great branches of intellectual life, the meta- 
physical or physical. On the contrary, he will esteem such a distribution 
of force necessary. His duli objections against cosmical philosophy, ut- 
tered in the shops of carpenters, shoemakers, saddlers, and helmetmakers,. 
added the stamp of quackery to his unquestionable rudeness ; his econo- 
mical receipts, as in the ease of Ceribus or of the steward, added to his 
repute nothing common to that of men like Anaxagoras. Honest enthu- 
siast, in other respects, as he was, he would have expressed the memory of 
the most distinguished adversaries of Greek cosmosophy without cankering 
the coming civilization of whole nations. Yet his scholars, Plato and 
Xenophon (the former being incomparably’greater than his master), stirred 
up his manes, and rendered him hateful and despicable to the noblest class 
of men, to natural philosophers.” : 

_ The progress of positive biological knowledge was thus impaired by the 
influence of moral poetry amongst the Greeks. ‘‘ It was the pressure exer- 


REVIEWS. 359 


_cised by the hexameters of the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey,’ of the ‘ Homeric 
Hymns’ and ‘ Kpigrams,’ on the Greek, which retarded chiefly the pro- 
gress of cosmical investigation. As the English their Bible, so venerated 
they the Homeric Poems: it was more than a mere fashion to quote lines 
from them; and whenever the questions of the day excited alarm, the let- 
tered of Megalopolis and Corinth, of Argos and Milet, took not less eagerly 
refuge to their authority than some grave farmers of Norfolk or of Aber- 
deenshire to theirs for the sake of getting a quick delivery about the Go- 
villa Gina and the Algilops ovata, the Niam-Niam and the ‘flint imple- 
ments in the Drift.’ To tne same category belonged the Didactics of He- 
siodus. Their perusal proved still more dangerous for youth in consequenze 
of their being intended to substitute the cosmogonies of observing natural 
philosophers.” 

Hvyen the Peripatetic school is castigated by Dr. Schvarez. Speaking 
of Aristotle, the man who did more for Zoology than any other prior to 
the time of Cuvier, in whose works “l'histoire de |’éléphant est plus exacte 
que dans Buffon’* he says, “It was unfortunate for the history of the 
efforts made by Indo-German races to arrive at some recognition of the 
true scheme of the universe in space and time, that this man had an aver- 
sion to geology, or was too overwhelmed with researches in other branches 
of knowledge—the man who exhibited the best-suited mind amongst the 
Greeks for natural investigation, and who, freed from every preposses- 
sion, admitted even the myths to be veiled explanations of cosmical pheno- 
mena.” 

In some classical authors, however, a glimpse at positive facts, induc- 
tively obtained, redeems the character of the ancients for observational 
acuteness. 

“ Ctesias the Cnidian ascribed, in spite of all these pretended observa- 
tions, the black (dark) colour of Hindoos, not to the action of solar rays, 
though the latter have been accused by Adschylus, Herodotus before him, 
by Theodectes of Phaselis, and a great many authors after him, of swarth- 
ening the skins of nations; but he ascribed it to nature, that is, he esta- 
blished a scheme of ‘ permanence of type.’... Even in our own age, it 
appears to be now generally admitted that unity of species does not involve 
unity of origin; in what, then, regards the relation, in the Greek view, of 
human races to each other and the other groups of the animal kingdom, 
we must refuse every startling generalization; for J am firmly of opinion 
that the whole question of the origin, development, transmutation, or ex- 
tinction of human races, as dealt with by the greater part of ethnologists, 
is of a negative character, and has arisen from the reaction against a theo- 
logical proposition. Had sacred tradition not awakened, say, the philoso- 
phical theme of the origin of mankind from one single pair, scientific in- 
vestigators would have never accumulated around those points of view so 
many data of observation. ... The circumstance alone, that those philoso- 
phers who lived in the vicinity of volcanos always adhered to the doctrine 
of a final conflagration, and those who lived near the sea always to that of 
a final cataclysm, removes any analogy to the religious appreciation of the 
‘signs of the times’ as given in sacred history. ... Anaxagoras the Cla- 
zomenean, being interrogated whether the Lampsacene mountains would 
ever become converted into sea, replied, according to the testimony of 
Diogenes Laertius, ‘ Yes, if time lasts long enough.’ ” 

It would be impossible here to notice the philosophical and metaphysical 
facts which Dr. ae has adduced, in favour of the cognition, by the 

* Cuvier, ‘Discours Préliminaire sur les Révolutions de la Surface du Globe,’ 8vo, 
4th edit., Paris, 1834, p. 154. 


360 TITE GEOLOGIST. 


ancients, of some geological ideas. The work is throughout marked by a 
manly, vigorous, style of thought, which alone would entitle the author to 
take the prominent place amongst Europe’s most philosophical thinkers 
he has assumed. In the confidence that future researches will speedily 
result from his prolonged attempts to pierce into the hidden fountains of 
human thought during past ages, we cannot better express the pleasure 
and admiration we have felt while reading the work than in this necessarily 
brief and imperfect notice of Dr. Schvarez’s volume. 


Volcanos, and the Character of their Phenomena. By G. Poulett 
Scrope, Esq. London: Longman. 1862. 


There are only two ways of reviewing a book, either thoroughly or 
briefly. To review Mr. Scrope’s book properly would not only occupy the 
space of a number, but it would be superfluous on our part ; for, as with- 
out exception, it is the standard work on the subject, every geologist 
who studies volcanic phenomena must have it. Mr. Scrope’s views are 
well known. He traces in all the mass of evidence accumulated the proof 
of the general uniformity and simplicity of the phenomena of which vol- 
canos and the volcanic formations are the expressions. Opposing Hum- 
boldt’s view of their “ isolated, variable, and obseure character,’ he 
mostly labours to show, that in every quarter of the globe the eruptions 
that have taken place are characterized by the same repeated splitting of 
the earth’s crust in fissures, and generaily accompanied by earthquakes and 
other indications of the swelling and heaving of subterranean effervescent 
matter, the same explosive outbursts of steam and vapours, throwing up 
liquid drops and cellular fragments of wholly or partially fused mineral 
substances or lava, or expelled in jets or streams, which flow or spread over 
considerable areas, or accumulate in bulky masses about ihe eruptive vent 
according to their degree of liquidity or gravity, and an examination of 
which discloses everywhere the same basalts, greystones, or trachytes, 
composed of the same minerals in varying proportions. He points out 
everywhere the same composition and structure in volcanic formations, 
from the smallest cinder-cones to the greatest and loftiest mountains, pre- 
senting the accumulated result of a long series of successive eruptions ; 
the same general quaquaversal dip of their component beds of lava and 
conglomerate from the central heights, as formed by successive outpourings 
and successive showers of ejected materials ; the same hollows drilled here 
and there through the axes of the mountain-masses by the force of explod- 
ing volumes of steam; and, finally, the general parallelism over the entire 
surface of the globe of the chief trains of volcanic vents as if the fissures 
through which the eruptions find their way outwardly were owing to 
the lateral drag occasioned by the upheaval of some contiguous superficial 
portion of the earth’s crust overlying a stratum of intensely heated and 
highly elastic matter, the tension of which, through increase of tempera- 
ture, had more or less overcome resistances exposed to its expansion. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


OCTOBER 1862. 


LIKES AND DISLIKES. 


WE are told that Lord Chatham once excused himself for not pay- 
ing due attention to the speech of a political rival by saying, that he 
felt that man was responsible to the Creator that his time should not 
be wasted by hearing discourses which neither conveyed profit or 
amusement to the hearer, nor honour and dignity to the speaker. - 
We were reminded forcibly of this anecdote by reading in our es- 
teemed contemporary the ‘ Parthenon,’ a few weeks ago, a paper en- 
titled “ Likes and Similitudes,”’—a title very like that of an Adelphi 
farce. 

It has been observed by metaphysical writers, that every object in 
the world must be either like or unlike some other object, and con- 
sequently, there can be no difficulty in instituting either a comparison 
or a contrast between any two things. For those readers then, who, 
like the zoologists ridiculed by Forbes, have a vivid perception of 
analogy, but not of affinity, as well as for that far more numerous 
class who can but perceive differences, without being able to decide 
whether they are dependent upon analogy or affinity, the perusal of 
“ Likes and Similitudes”’ will afford insipid and innutritive mental re- 
past, akin in nature to that which regales poetic minds entranced 
over the pages of the ‘Sentiment of Flowers’ or ‘The Language of 
Plants.’ 

There may be writers who might find a congenial banquet in an 
account of the gambols of a malevolent monkey, or in the descriptions 
of the frauds practised on some of those bygone geologists whose works, 

VOL. V. oA 


362 THE GEOLOGIST. 


applied in sheets by paste, now line the insides of our travelling trunks. — 
But to those who regard Geology and Zoology, and their kindred 
sciences, as the pillars of physical truth, who regard scientific exacti- 
tude as an object of reverence, and who inculcate scientific methods 
of thought as the most noble, the most worthy occupation of man’s 
mind, the perusal of these papers will afford a sentiment of dis- 
gust similar to that which the pious Bunsen felt when criticizing the 
predecessors of Schelling :— : 


ce 


———— preaching dreams 
Like hierophants before a gaping mob.” 

What good can it be, when the bulk of our masses are in ignorance 
respecting the most elementary facts of geology, to waste the space 
of a popular and excellent periodical by alluding to the fact that some 
obsolete writer has described the “ammonite as-a silly insect with 
black spots’? Far better it would be for a sincere biologist,—not 
one who merely picks out the “pretty bits” of science,—to explain 
the structure of an ammonite, to define the various subgenera and the 
wonderful modifications of form which ammonites exhibit, or to 
attempt to do the useful work of unravelling the obscure synonymy 
of the genus. To neglect the grave problems of science merely to 
tell us that a chrysalis looks like a “buttoned-up cabman upside 
down,” or like something else right side up, is indeed to reverse the 
practice of Wamba the Witless in Scott’s novel, who, although 
passing his time of peace and idleness in jesting and folly, could | 
wield a powerful sword when the danger of his master was immi- 
nent. : 

One only of our modern writers seems to have had the facility of 
combining witticism and caricature with the more serious work. This 
was Edward Forbes. But the harmless waggery and real wit, which 
flowing from the genial pen and facile pencil of one who had done 
such good service, might be tolerated. No other wit, either of his 
own day, before his time, or since, could dare to do the same; or if 
he dared, would only make a bitter failure of his rashness. In the 
hands of, puny men such effort becomes the badge of mental weak- 
ness, and diminishes into reprehensible vulgarity. In Forbes’s inimi- 
table sketches, wit, humour, and point tell out in every stroke; but 
it was only the genius of the artist-wit that saved the savant from 
condemnation for the practice. It was the man we permitted to take 
such licences in his scientific works ; but zs jokes were added to his 
chapters, and he never made a joke of his real, good, earnest work. 


LIKES AND DISLIKES. 363 


No scientific problem would be the better for being grinned at through 
a horse-collar ; and the constant joking about matters of grave im- 
port forcibly corroborates the truth of the celebrated aphorism of 
Lord Bacon,—“ Homines derisores civitatem perdunt.”’ 

The facile pen of our author, glib in finding that anything in 
science is like anything else, runs smoothly and superficially over the 
whole animal and vegetable kingdom. We are told that an Ento- 
mostracan,— 

“ Sida crystallina, is easily transformed into a costermonger by giving 
the creature legs, a pipe, and a basket of greens.” 

We were not previously aware that legs, pipes, and cabbages, were 
the only predicable characters dividing the human race from water- 
fleas. It is, however, but too evident that the writer is unacquainted 
even with the most elementary scientific facts. Thus, in the first 
paper, Zursius Bancanus is spoken of as being man’s progenitor. 
Compare the gorilla’s brain with Tarsius’s brain! Has the author 
of “Likes” ever read Burmeister’s monograph? has he ever seen 
the paltry little lemur? Again, in the second paper, he writes— 

“The Acidaspis Keyserlingii, a Silurian Trilobite figured by Barrande 


(Syst. Sil. de Bohéme, pl. 36), bears a remarkable likeness, when J give 
him feet and arm him with a spear, to a Polynesian savage.” 


We are too slow to see the likeness, but we are far from wishing 
to tempt the author of “ Likes and Similitudes”’ to offer us any of 
those artistic examples of his dementia with which his manuscript 
was probably suitably illustrated ; but he is evidently possessed with a 
pungent idea that there is some occasional connection between some 
individuals of the human race and the family of crabs, for he adds— 

« Pemplis Suessii, a crustacean of higher class, met with in the New 
Red rocks of Germany, figured by Von Meyer, may be claimed by Mr. 
Layard as an Assyrian king in an eruptive state.” 

The meaning of this sentence fairly baffles our limited powers of 
comprehension. Why Mr. Layard should feel anxious to possess an 
Assyrian king whose skin may be unhealthy, or who is in the process 
of voleanie excitement, we avow ourselves unable to fathom. 

We all know the unfortunate mistake a certain lady is reputed to 
have made by looking aé her dictionary ; the author of “ Likes”? has 
achieved an equally unfortunate result by not looking at his before 
he wrote— 

“The curious wing-finned fishes found in the Old Red Sandstone of 
Scotland, belonging to the genus Plerichthys, which have been so cleverly 


364 THE GEOLOGIST. 


described by the late Hugh Miller, were long before known to the quarry- 
men as petrified cherubims; for the attachment of the fins to the neck- 
plate gave them much the appearance of those chubby cherubs with flut- 
tering wings, so often carved by village cutters upon grave-stones.” 

We confess this anecdote is new to us; but we were fully aware of 
the fact, that the fragments of the large crustacean Pterygotus were 
termed “seraphim” by the Scotch quarry-men, by reason of the 
“ wing-like form and feather-like ornaments of the hinder part of the 
head, the part most usually met with” (Lyell, Manual, p. 419), and 
the words Pterichthys and Pterygotus having the four first letters in 
common, is perhaps sufficient excuse for the confusion between a 
ganoid fish and a crustacean. 

Does not the Welshman in Shakespeare’s Henry V. come to the 
reader’s mind— 

“Tn the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, the situations, 
look you, are both alike. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also 
moreover a river at Monmouth; it is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is 
out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but it is all one, ’tis 
like as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.” 

It is too much to expect an esthetic writer who knows Tennyson 
better than Morris’s Catalogue, to “creep servilely after the sense” 
of common thinking men. 

Our author tries the marvellous :— 


«Many fungi have affinities to animal forms. Some African forms of 
these remarkable plants, referable to the genus Boletus, have been com- 
pared, in size, colour, and shape, to sleeping lions. With such resem- 
blances, it may be imagined that early botanists did not overlook the op- 
portunity of linking them with the supernatural. One amusing instance 
is the species of Starry Puff-ball (Geaster), figured by Sterbeeck in his 
‘Theatrum Fungorum’ (1675) as a family party of Anglo-Saxons going to 
sea in a boat made out of the mycelium of the fungus.” 

May we ask, what is the supernatural instance here alluded to? Is 
it the “ delusive shilling sail” of the Anglo-Saxons, or is it the sleeping 
lions; or are mushrooms allied to lions, or to ghosts, or both to either, 
or what, or which? We know that witches had intercourse with the 
supernatural world, and went to sea in tubs; perhaps that is what is 
meant, but we should have been told so. We must avow ourselves 
on this occasion of the same opinion as Lord Dundreary on another, 
“that there are some things no fellow can understand.” 

Our zoologist, whose “study has been to describe organisms by 
the depths of scientific research, or to seek out the more playful 
phases of terrene life,” sinks rapidly to the congenial level of the 
dirt-pie, and tells us, “ The forms, odd and absurd-looking as they are, 


LIKES AND DISLIKES. 865 


into which plastic clay and silica have been moulded, are replete with 
instruction. For the resemblances which at first seemed to assimilate 
classes and genera do, in fact, strengthen divisional lines and increase 
the value of species.” 

Perhaps the future attempts which our enthusiastic contributor 
may make to solve the mystery of the Origin of Species, may be ma- 
terially aided through the means of a handful of London mud. Per- 
haps even oyster-grottos or card-houses may have their deep mystic 
significations on the problem, and give the “stamp of verity and 
truth” to the “tracings made for the amusement of young natu- 
ralists.” In the meanwhile, to the tender mercies of those zoologists 
who have worked out the Polyzoa we commend the following descrip- 
tion :— 

* Among the oddest, though at the same time the most graceful, of 
natural patterns, may be reckoned the aggregated cells which make up the 
homes of those low-class molluscan animals, the Polyzoa-Bryozoa, or moss- 
corals, as they are commonly called. A living mass of this moss-coral, 
viewed through a microscope, looks like a screen of carven stone-work, 
with openings where light is needed. Keeping watch at one of these holes, 
presently we see a tiny beak of transparent jelly peeping through; and, if 
the coast is clear, rosy-tipped fingers of the same exquisite material are 
pushed out, to catch and entangle the floating atoms in the water. Some 
openings or cell-doors are hooded in rather a comical way, and each one 
has a living tenant, who at times ‘stands at his door in a diamond frill,’ 
and fishes for his dinner. One of these cellules is seen to be hooded like 
a calceolaria flower; another uplifts little childlike arms; a third has per- 
forated ears and a very mousy look.” 

How the ears of a Bryozoon ean be perforated—even, if it had any, 
how it could be mousy—we fail to perceive. To pick a last ex- 
ample of the many absurdities which still remain, we are told that “the 
head of a small Clupean fish from the Caribbean Sea presents a re- 
markable resemblance in facial contour to the present Emperor of the 
French.” Falstaff compares himself to a “ shotten herring ;” but we 
have too much respect for the Anglo-French alliance to endorse such 
an “unsavoury simile” in respect to Louis Napoleon. 

We like real fun and enjoy real wit as much as anybody, but we 
dislike to see science “made funny” for the sake of the so-many 
shillings a column which the proprietor of a magazine pays, in confi- 
dence of the ability of his contributor to send him good matter. We 
dislike to see science deliberately degraded. 

We are sorry to think that ‘ Likes and Similitudes’ emanates 
from the pen of an author who sometimes dates his lucubrations from 
the Geological Society. 


366 


ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF ROCKS IN THE CAPE 
TOWN DISTRICT, SOUTH AFRICA. 


By Dr. R. N. Rupipes. 


I gave, in a paper in the February number of the ‘ Geologist,’ a 
general view of the facts in the geology of this country which have 
led me to believe that the metamorphosis of rocks is due to a slow 
and gradual change in their constituents ; of which change water is 
one of the chief agents, and the internal heat of the earth not a ne- 
cessary adjunct. 

I now propose to describe more particularly those relations of the 
quartzite with the paleozoic rocks, a careful examination of which 
has rendered necessary an entire reconstruction of the geological map 
of the country. That map, published in the Transactions of the Geo- 
logical Society, was the work of an able man, and the evidence on 
which the Devonian (Upper Silurian, Bain) was separated from the 
Clay-slate formation was (so far as I have been able to verify it), L 
believe, such, that he would not have been justified in coming to an- 
other conclusion by any generally admitted principle of the science ; 
for this reason, I invite the criticism of European geologists on my 
facts and inferences, and their aid in solving many difficulties which 
still remain unexplained. | 

I stated in my former Paper that the plains and lower hills and 
valleys of the coast region, extending from Cape Town to the mouth 
of the Fish River, were formed of blue slaty and sandy rocks. These 
were all referred to one formation by Lichtenstein. 

Dr. Krauss, an eminent botanist and geologist, states that he made 
repeated sections of the country, from the coast to the Karoo, and 
always found the clay-slate (Thonschiefer und Grauwackeschiefer) 
occupying the plains and valleys, and the quartzose sandstone or 
quartzite (Bunter-Sandstein) the mountains. On Zwartkops heights 
and the Von Stadens river bergen, he remarks this was notably the 
case. Dr. Atherstone, in a section through the district of George, 
could find no reason for separating the clay-slate from the Devonian. 
Mr. Bain agrees with these authorities as to the identity of the slates 
as far eastward as the mesozoic estuary of the Gamtoos river. In 
his map he shows the clay-slate, interrupted (as also mentioned by 
Krauss) by masses of granite, and surmounted by sandstones, ex- 
tending from Cape Town to the edge of the mesozoie rocks,—a point 
corresponding to the Kabeljouw river’s mouth in the sketch. 

Lichtenstein, Bain, and Krauss therefore concur in believing the 
clay-slate and quartzite of the region between the Kromme and Ka- 
beljouw rivers to be respectively identical and continuous with those 
of Cape Town, where the highly inclined beds of slate are surmounted 
by nearly horizontal sandstone. Mr. Bain, differing with the others, 
makes both cease here. I have little doubt of the continuity of the 
slate from Cape Town hither. I have none (as I shall presently 


RUBIDGE—ROCKS IN TIE CAPER TOWN DISTRICT. 367 


show) of that of the Kromme and Kabeljouw region with those of 
the Zwartkops heights, and thence to the Fish River. Still, Mr. Bain 
is too able a man, and has generally too good reason for what he does, 
for any opinion of his to be passed over lightly. My own observa- 
tions extend no further westward on this part of the coast than the 
region just mentioned; but as I think I can show that the relative 
positions of the quartzite mountain-ranges with the slate plains and 
valleys, clearly refer both to the hke formations in the west, and as 
I have fossil and other evidence of their identity with the rocks fur- 
ther east, I will describe this region more fully. 

The Kromme (winding) river runs for some miles from its source 
through a quartzite range, some few strata of slate here and there 
appearing in its bed; as, for instance, at the spot marked A in the 
sketch, where the slate contained vegetable stems. The main direc- 
tion of the range, Cougha and Baviaans Kloofbergen, is about north 
80° east. It sends off a branch, the Zitzi Komma (sometime called 
Kromme) heights, to Cape St. Francis, in direction north 44° west : 
another, some of the spurs of which skirt Hermansdorp and Hankey, 
the main direction being north 79° west. Thus these ranges diverge 
at an angle of about 35°; but, taking the spur, it would be nearer 
60°. The Cougha bergen are, perhaps, 1500 to 1800 feet high; the 
Zitzi Komma 1000 to 1300. They are of quartzite sandstone of va- 
rious degrees of hardness and crystalline character, often saccharine, 


oX , 
acs ules 2. 
ant \ Win P \\\STOE tz 
e ov \\il INS . Se Nil \y Nh uA if 
G Oy » \G i) ans Ny \\ Nu m(( 
Hw’ >» © \ RRR \ 
KR ont Me - c 
s Law MM nA \\ AWG SNE LSS) 
“ yyy sy bau A) > f . v “= —=——CAPE ) 
MN ; RECEIE 


"him 
M Ib, 
7 h 


=> 


CAPES, FRANCIS 
PLAN OF COUNTRY AROUND St. Franects Bay.* 
A. Spot in the Kromme river where fossils were found. B. Devonian 


fossils near this spot. C. Devonian fossils at Hermansdorp. D. De- 
vonian fossils at Kabeljouw river mouth. 


sometimes ivory-like. The line subtending this angle, drawn from 
near the mouth of the Kromme to the most eastern portion of the 
Gamtoos below Hankey, would pass over scarce anything but slate ; 
with a slight curvature it would pass over no quartzite. As the 
strike of the slate is north 66° west, and the line nearly 15 miles long 
and making but a small angle with it, I believe the line would cross 
12 miles of the strike. The dip of the rocks is considerable here ; so 


* The strike is too near perpendicular to the range of mountains, and the two ranges 
should have diverged at right angles. 


368 THE GEOLOGIST. 


that I think six or seven geographical miles for the depth of the sec- 
tion isa low estimate. A glance at the sketch would show that a few 
miles on in the strike a parallel line would pass through nothing 
but quartzite. 

The quartzite mountains, therefore, and their spurs, cross the slate 
at considerable angles to the strike of the latter, and the mountain 
ranges enclose large angular areas of slate. I have stated just now 
that two parallel lines could be drawn, at the distance of some miles 
apart, which should cut a corresponding portion of the strike of the 
slate. Taking the smaller spurs of the ranges, and giving the lines no 
very considerable curve, two such lines might be drawn within two 
miles of each other. My reason for dwelling on this relation will ap- 
pear presently. I would now beg of any geologist who has followed 
me thus far to pause and reflect on these relations of the slate and 
quartzite, and before proceeding to answer to himself, and if not too 
great a favour, to me, through the ‘ Geologist,’ the following ques- 
tions :— 

1st, Supposing the relations just described to be correctly repre- 
sented,* is it not clear that Mr. Bain and the other authorities quoted 
are right in classing the slates with the old rocks, and making the 
quartzite a newer and independent formation P 

2nd, If the geologist should find rocks resting conformably on the 
same quartzite, would he not refer them (same postulate) to a much 
newer formation than the slate ? 

This is simply what Mr. Bain has done. 

I will suppose it admitted that the clay-slate of the region between 
the Kromme and the Kabeljouw and Gamtoos rivers is probably of 
identical and continuous formation with that of Cape Town, and that 
of the quartzose rocks which cross it at various angles to its strike, 
are continuous and identical in character with those of Table Moun- 
tain. Then I think it will not be disputed that these slates must 
have been upheaved into their present positions long ere the deposi- 
sition of the quartzose sandstone or its assumption of its present con- 
dition, which Darwin attributes to the infiltration of silica. 

Let us now see what grounds we have for forming a judgment as 
to the age of these slates, reminding tke reader that Mr. Bain, from 
sections which I believe to be mainly correct, referred them to an 
epoch long preceding the Lower Silurian, which strata, resting on 
the quartzite, are supposed Upper Silurian (Devonian of European 
geologists), and rocks interstratified with like quartzite at the Mait- 
land Mines and the eastern province generally are called Carbonife- 
rous. 

Some time after the relations of the quartzite with the paleozoic 
and metamorphic rocks, observed in Namaqualaad and in this pro- 
vince, had led me to predict that the former, throughout the colony, 
would be found to belong to one formation, Mr. Niven, of Jeffreys 
Bay, undertook, at my request, to search for fossil evidence bearing 


* T have borrowed the pencil of a friend, Mr. R. Miller, to represent these relations 
more clearly to the eye. It is doubtful if the relation of the strike will be understood. - 


» 


RUBIDGE—ROCKS OF THE CAPE TOWN DISTRICT. 369 


on this question. He scon discovered Phacops Kafer, Orthis pal- 
mata, Spirifer antarc/icus, two species of Strophomena, and several 
of Encrinites, which clearly established the Devonian character of the 
slates about the mouth of the Kabeljouw river. Last year, in a 
professional journey to those parts, I was fortunate enough to find 
fossils in the bed of the Kromme river (a), near Diep river (4), and 
at Hermansdorp, which, together with the section, show that all 
these slates, supposed to be so ancient, were Devonian throughout. 
At different periods the discovery of the same species at Coxcomb, in 
Winterhoek, at Chatty, and Naroo, and a few weeks ago near Van 
Stadensberg, has clearly proved the identity of the paleozoic strata 
in the eastern province as far as the Fish River’s mouth with the clay- 
slate of the region I have described, and almost certainly of Cape 
Town. 

Now, the quartzite of the Cougha range is continuous with that 
of the Coxcomb, and both are so with the Van Stadensberg. I 
could give a sketch of very nearly the same relations of these ranges 
with the slate as those described, but they are not quite so well 
marked. ‘The directions of the ranges of quartzite hills, as shown 
on any map of the colony, with the explanation that the strike dif- 
fers not very considerably throughout the province, will render this 
unnecessary. The quartzite ought then to be newer than the Devo- 
nian in the Eastern province also. Yet in this province it has never 
been regarded by any geologist as otherwise than conformable with 
the Devonian (Carboniferous, Bain). Dr. Atherstone and I believe 
that of the Cougha as equally conformable with the Devonian slates 
of the Kromme, Kabeljouw, and Gamtoos. The relations of the 
mountain chains I have shown to be the same in both provinces. 

{ will now quote authorities to show that the conformability is un- 
mistakeable in this province. If some of the extracts are long, it 
must be attributed to my belief that this is the most important part 
of my argument. If I can convince geologists that mountains 1200 
to 8000 feet or more in height, which take the direction in reference 
to the strike, which, as I have said, any map of the colony will show 
they do take, are really composed of quartzose sandstone conform- 
able, and at their junctions, and in valleys, interstratified with the 
Devonian slates they thus cross; it will, I think, be admitted that 
the rocks of this country (of different ages) have been subjected to a 
metamorphic action of a peculiar nature, and which has not received 
sufficient attention.* 

Bain.—Carboniferous System. This system differs but little, li- 
thologically, from the quartzose sandstones of the Silurian ranges of 


* In explanation of the great desire I have always felt, for the opinions of European 
geologists of note on the subject of these relations of our rock, 1 must remark, that | am 
quite a self-taught geologist, and have had uo experience in any country but this. 
Moreover, all the colonial geologists, while admitting the relations described, see nothing 
inexplicable by admitted theories in them, Dr. Atherstone, for instance, believes that 
the quartzose sandstones were originally deposited in the positions mentioned, interstra- 
tified with the slates. Mr. Bain believed them of different and unconformable formation: 
so does Krauss. Since he has seen the Devonian fossils, Mr. Bain is inclined to think 

FOL. V. 3 3B 


370 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the western parts of the colony (except that the carboniferous rocks 

have no pebbles). The quartzose sandstone, which is in general 
characteristic of this system, passes into chloritic schist at De Stade’s 
and Van Staden’s rivers, where mines of galena and copper have 
been for some time worked, but I fear not profitably. 

“ No workable coal has yet been discovered in this system ; but 
numerous species of carboniferous plants have been found near the 
Kowie River, Woest’s Hill, Slowison’s Poort, and other localities in 
the talcose schist.”—‘ Eastern Province Magazine,’ vol. 1. p. 456, 
Godlonton and White, Graham’s Town. Compare with maps and 
description of strata, Geol. Trans. 

Dr. Atherstone.—“ Above the quartzose and micaceous sandstones 
and chloritic schists at the Maitland mines, and also along the Lorie 
River to Hankey, and still further on in the Gamtoos River, a dark 
grey fine-grained magnesian limestone is found. ... Above this lime- 
stone in some places, as at the Maitland Mines, Van Staden’s River, 
and the Lworie River, there is a hard and coarse sandstone with 
quartz pebbles, which makes excellent millstones.... Below the mag- 
nesian limestone lie conformably quartzose sandstones and micaceous 
shales and schists, similar to those of the carboniferous sandstones of 
the Zeurberg. The sandstones and schists of the Coxcomb and Win- 
terberg range appear more like the Old Red Sandstone formation, 
and are infinitely more contorted than the carboniferous rocks; and 
as no fossils have as yet been found in them,* and the range appears 


the slates and quartzites conformable, and that he has made a mistake in the boundary of 
the formation in the east, while he strongly affirms the accuracy of his section in the west. 

It will be seen by reference to former Papers, that on my belief in the truth of Mr. 
Bain’s section I founded the prediction that the clay-slate and Devonian would be proved 
one formation. When I use the word Devonian as applying to all our strata, I would 
explain that I make no pretension to settle the question of their age on my own authority, 
or to deny the possibility of there being strata as old or older than the Cambrian or older 
rocks in Britain. I simply mean that I have seen no reason for believing in any older 
rock uuconformable with the Devonian; and I hope I have shown that the position of 
the quartzite, with reference to the latter, 1s the same as it is to the clay-slate, which Bain 
and Wylie believe so much older. 

I ask for the aid I mention because I think the opinion of high authority would be of 
great value to us by showing what is regarded as eredible, and what is not. The assistant- 
secretary of the Geological Society, some years ago, told me that the story of quartzite 
metamorphosis was rejected 7m toto. I hope the labours of Messrs. Sorby, Daubrée, Hunt, 
and othefs, have somewhat modified opinions. At the period in question my belief in this 
assimilation of rocks of different ages had not been confirmed by those discoveries which 
rendered the map published by the Society entirely obsolete as to some of the principal 
formations of the Colony. It was quite natural that under such circumstances the fulfil- 
ment of my early prediction should have been regarded as the confirmation of lucky 
guesses ; but when I pointed out the fact that as to the Carboniferous and clay-slate for- 
mations, the result of my researches was, as I have said, to render the map obsolete, I 
think that in taking no notice of my communications the Society lost an opportunity. 

* 'The discovery of Devonian fossils at the zorthern foot of the Coxcomb, in rocks with 
but a slight inclination, and that of the same species close to the Van Stadensberg, in beds 
with a dip of 46°, with a clear section connecting them with the schists at the De Stade’s 
River mines, is singular in connection with this remark of my friend, and would seem 
to indicate that he has been misled as to the relative ages of furmations in the east, in 
the same manner as Mr, Bain has further west. 


RUBIDGE—ROCKS OF THE CAPE TOWN DISTRICT. 371 


continuous with the Zwarteberg range, which I believe to be Devo- 
nian, I should consider them also of the same age.”—Jbid., pp. 585- 
587. 

Mr. Wylie, Government Geological Surveyor.—“ Were” (at Goobe- 
loan’s northern base of the Zeurberg) “the shales disappear, and we 
enter upon rocks exactly the same as the Wittenbergen and the Ko- 
roo Poort sandstones in the western district. These continue all the 
way through the Zeurberg. Beside the yellowish or brownish sand- 
stones there are many beds of very sandy shale, usually of a bright 
colour. Many of the sandstones cannot be distinguished from those 
of Table Mountain, though the latter are of much older date.’’* 

“The sandstones of the Zeurbere form a great anticlinal arch; but 
this consists again of three great folds and two or more minor flexures. 
The beds may be seen dipping at all angles from 5° to 80°. On the 
Seaward side of the Zeurberg, between the 20th and 21st milestones, 
I again crossed the trap conglomerate on the southern side of the an- 
ticlinal. It there forms a belt in width about 500 yards, and in actual 
thickness is not more than 500 or 600 feet. Grey shales oecur both 
above and below it.’””-—‘ Notes of a Journey,’ ete., Cape Town, Saul, 
Solomon, & Co. (See also p. 3 of the same, and passim.) 

There may be some little apparent confusion arising out of the 
different nomenclature used by the authorities I have quoted. The 
fact is, that the beds which are usually blue and clayey schists, with 
some argillaccous sandstones, are generally altered to a micaceous 
chloritic or taleose character, and in the upper part, when mixed with 
the sandstones, are ochry. The spots 
in which Devonian fossils have been 
found, together with the uniformity of 
strike, prove their identity throughout. 
This is now admitted by all observers 


as to this province. Fig. 1.—Section of Pickel Vontein. 
The sections sent herewith are:— (Atherstone and Rubidge.) 


1. Pickel Vontein, carefully observed by Dr. Atherstone and myself. 
2. Chatty, measured by Mr. Pinchin and myself. 3. Section through 
Klein Poorden Poort, by Mr. Pinchin and 
myself. These have been merely sketched 
without measurement in the present in- 
stance, as I am unfortunately deprived of 
Mr. Pinchin’s valuable aid. A carefully exe- 
cuted section was sent home to the Geologi- 
val Society some years ago. a 
I will conclude this paper by showing that Fig. 2. 
what I have, I hope, satisfactorily proved of — (Pinchin and Rubidge.) 
the quartzite, is also predicable of crystalline limestone or marble—viz. 
the continuity of horizontal beds unconformable with the subjacent 
strata, with beds of the same kind interealated between the latter. 


* Mr. Wylie, in his section of this part of the Colony, which, though not published, is 
placed in the Town Tall, in Cape Town, makes the shales above spoken of conformable 
with the sandstones. 


he THE GEOLOGIST. 


I have described saccharine and finer-grained quartzites in this re- 
lation. I have now to mention that at Rodos, sixty miles from 
the mouth of the Orange River, 
strata of limestone rest in ex- 
tensive masses on the mountains, 
I was told, horizontally; while 
Wel below, only a Copal few 


a ee a y d beds of saccharine and other va- 
Fig. 3.—Section through Klein Poorden Poort. rieties of er ystalline limestone 
(Pinchin and Rubidge.) were interstratified with the 

aa, quartzite; 244, slate; c, porphyry (Bain) ; eneiss. 
d, porphyry: I should hardly have thought 


it necessary to contest the igneous origin of marble at the present 
day, had I not seen in your Magazine the account of a recent experl- 
ment. 


SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA, A NEW AND RE- 
MARKABLE FOSSIL SHELL FROM THE HIPPURITE 
LIMESTONE OF JAMAICA. 


By 8. P. Woopwarp, F.G:S. 


The fossil represented in the accompanying figures is one of that 
kind whose discovery severely tests the faith of the naturalist in his 
previous conclusions, and may appear to raise a suspicion not only 
respecting the sufficiency of his data, but even as to the correctness 
of his method of investigation. Almost any person, at first sight of 
the specimen, would think he was looking at a coral, and it would 
seem like an attempt to impose on one’s credulity to say it was a 
bivalve shell, like an oyster or a clam.* 

Yet there is no doubt it is a kind of Hippurite, although the rays 
give it a novel and extraordinary character. The discoverer had quite 
satisfied himself on this point before he brought it to England and 
placed it in our hands. It was found last year (January, ‘1861), by 
Mr. Lucas Barrett, F.G.S., Director of the Geological Survey of the 
British West Indies, in the parish of Portland, in the north-east of 


* This is not the only case of the sort. The genus Goniophyllum, one of the “ Zo- 
antharia rugosa,” established by Milne-Edwards, is apparently identical with Ca/eeola, 
the well-known bivalve fossil of the Bifel, placed by Lamarck with the “ Rudistes,” and 
admitted as a Brachiopod, with a sign of doubt, by Mr. Davidson and myself. Eon 
phyllum pyramidale is a scarce fossil of the Upper Silurian at Dudley and Malvern, but 
not uncommon in the Baltic island of Gothland. It was described as a Calceo/a by 
Girard in 1842. Another species, which is so like Calceola sandalina that Murchison 
and Verneuil assumed the existence of Devonian strata in Gothland, on the strength of 
its occurrence, has small rootlets of attachment along the borders of its “ hinge-area,’ 
and a vesicular interior, like Cystiphyl/um. After carefully examining a series ‘of exam- 
ples belonging to M. Lindstrom, of Wisby, we can only say that they are probably weither 
Brachiopoda nor Zoantharia, although very like each in some respects. 


ie ee — 


a Le iat f euge me uy or = é 
ue (up ‘ bs i F ; iy yY ee ” . e oe 
a ae. si + Ee a c 
i he A et : 


BARRETTIA MONILIFERA. 


|. Reduced figure of a group of three individuals. 
3. Tangential Section. 


eal 


PLATE XX. 


| 4 | 
< i et q 
>") 1t 
- i i ; | 
S| 
SS HSS “| 
| af 
es \ . 
i) ; | 
AN A 4 : 
| \ \i 


= 


pt 


2 


2. Longitudinal Section. 


4, Transverse Section of Fig. 3. 


WOODWARD—SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA. 373 


Jamaica. This part of the island, lying to the north of the principal 
range of the Blue Mountains, which run east and west, is itself 
mountainous, rising to the height of 7000 feet. The hippurite lime- 
stone is well seen oa the banks of the Back river, a tributary of the 
Rio Grande, at about fifteen miles from the coast. It isa hard, orey 
rock, occurring in bands of a few inches to a yard in thickness, sub- 
ordinate to many hundreds of feet of shale which graduate upwards 
into other grey shales of the Eocene Tertiary, followed by white 
limestone of Miocene age.* 


GENERAL SECTION OF THE TERTIARY AND SECONDARY Srravra, East JAMAICA. 


1 2 3 4 5 6 


1. Purple conglomerates. 2. Cretaccous limestone, with Hippurites. 3. Grey shales. 
4. Orbitoidal limestone. 5. Miocene limestone. 6. Pliocene limestone and marls. 


The appearance of the hippurite limestone of Jamaica is unlike 
that of any English cretaceous stratum. It abounds in small, oval 
bodies called Orbitoides, related to the Tertiary Nummulites, but mis- 
taken by Sir Henry De la Beche for joints of the Bncrinite (or Hn- 
trochites), and so leading him to compare this rock with the moun- 
tain limestone of England.t The other fossils of the limestone are 
Radiolites, Inocerami, a large Nerinea, and an Acteéonella resembling 
A, levis, D?Orb. The two last-mentioned shells are also found in 
the island of St. Thomas. The hippurites are plentiful, but em- 
bedded in the solid rock, and only to be procured by blasting with 
gunpowder. ‘They often form groups of two or three; the smaller 
individuals having grown upon the sides of the larger. The example 
figured is five inches in diameter , and was probably eighteen inches 
or two feet in length. The fossil was at first broken across several 
inches lower down than the line of section represented (fig. 5), and 
when ground and polished it exhibited only a solid mass of nearly 
white, calcareous spar, the centre being filled up with a vesicular 
structure, as in the Silurian coral Cystiphy yllum. he dark-coloured, 
moniliform rays, and traces of the dental apparatus agreed exactly in 
size, number, and position with those in the section afterwards taken 
at a higher ‘level, but only halfway across, which shows a central 
eavity filled with dark limestone. There are 65 radii, alternately 
longer and shorter; the longest are from 1 inch to 14, and have 7 to 
10 beads; the short rays have 5 or 6 beads, sometimes fewer. A 
third section, 3} inches in diameter, and only 8 inches from the 
conical fixed end of the fossil, presents fewer rays (about 46), and less 
distinctly beaded. In each section two radii are more important than 
the rest, and correspond with the two longitudinal ridges (am x) that 

* Quarterly Journal of the Geol. ns han p. 824. 
+ Trans, Geol. Soc., 2nd series, vol. ii, pt. ii. p. 143, 


374: TILE GEOLOGIST. 


are always visible in European specimens of the hippurite, which 
have become hollow by the dissolution of their inner layer of shell,* 
(fig. 7). These ridges are formed by the folding in of the outer 
wall of the shell, and it is evident that the numerous rays of the 
Jamaica fossil are produced by a repetition of the same process. 
They seem intended to compensate the tenuity of the outer wall, and 
perhaps are the cause of its reduction. Ina specimen of Hippurites 
cornu-vaccinum, of equal size, the outer layer of shell is an inch thick, 
whereas in the Jamaica fossil it measures only three lines, and in a 
transverse section (fig. 4) exhibiting the lateral union of three 
(probably small) individuals, the dowble boundary-wall is less than a 
line in thickness. In the sections represented (figs. 2, 5), the outer 
shell-wall has chiefly been removed by accident or destroyed by mining 
parasites, except where preserved by investing corals and small Ra- 
diolites. 

The upper end of the fossil was slightly convex, retaining the 
opercular valve in a somewhat damaged condition. When split lon- 
gitudinally through the centre, it showed the body cavity, and two 
shelly processes descending from the lid (as in figure 2, aa'). Of these 
the right-hand, or posterior, apophysis (a) projects into a cavity, which 
is so close to the principal inflection (mm) that part of it is shown in 
the same figure. The beads of the rays in the transverse section 
are strung together by almost invisible lines; but in this longitudinal 
fracture they are seen to be continuous plates, and are striated on 
the side by lines of growth. At the summit they must have formed 
a series of radiating ridges, with furrows between, bordering the in- 
terior of the valve. The bottom of the body-cavity was also more 
irregular than usual in shells. The upper valve is perforated by a 
few large radiating canals, with canaliculi conducting to the outer 
surface (x 2). 

After it came into my possession, a fresh section was made across 
that half of the cylinder which contained the dental apparatus, in 
order to show the exact form and position of the hinge-teeth. They 
are seen in the figure (5, a’) filling their sockets exactly, with the 
exception of small defined spaces on their outer sides, which form 
the only trace, at this level, of the eavities occupied by the divided 
cartilage (cc’). The interval between the dental sockets (/) 1s occu- 
pied by a solid, rectangular portion of shell, representing the single 
dental process of the lower valve. There is no “ligamental inflection ” 
of the outer shell, as in H. cornu-vaccinum, and many other species. 

The existence of the ligamental plate in the typical division of the 
genus Hippurites is accompanied by such an amount of displacement 
of the hinge as to justify the subgeneric separation- of those species 


The inner layer of shells in the families Peetinide and Chamida, as well as the 
pearly lining of the Aviculide, Turbinide, ete., has the constitution of Aragonzte, while the 
outer layer consists of Calcite, as stated by Gustav Rose, and confirmed by the observa- 
tions of Mr. Sorby. he bi-axial character of mother-of-pearl may usually be detected 
with a tourmaline in any thin, translucent section, such as a counter or the edge of a 
pearl paper-kuife. 


WOODWARD—SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA. 375 


in which the plate is wanting, and the cardinal apparatus lies close to 
the side of the shell instead of being at right angles to it.* We 
have already described and figured these peculiarities on former oc- 
casions, and it will be sufficient now to propose the name Dorbignia 
for H. bi oculatus and other hippurites (figs. 6,7), which have no 
ligamental inflection, and a second subgeneric title, barrettia, for 
the Jamaica fossil, which presents the further peculiarity of an indefi- 
nite number of pallial duplicatures extending all round the margin of 
the lower valve. 

lt still remains to speak of the shelly process from the upper 
valve (a'), seen in both our sections, descending into a pit between 
the posterior tooth (¢) and the principal duphcature (m). In the 
paper previously referred to we have described this process as the 
support of the posterior shell-muscle, having found characteristic 
indications of the muscular scar within the cavity which receives. it. 
Since then, Professor Bayle, of the Ecole des Mines at Paris, has pub- 
lished a description, with excellent figures, of some very complete 
examples of Hippurites radiosus. These specimens do not show any 
peculiarity unknown before, but they are far more perfect than the 
best we had ever seen, and exhibit in complete relief the extra- 
ordinary cardinal apparatus of the upper valve, of which our previous 
knowledge was chiefly obtained from sections. Owing to the condition 
of his specimens, M. Bayle has had the good fortune to procure, in a few 
weeks, better illustrations than we could obtain with much labour, 
continued at intervals for several years. Nevertheless, the very state 
of our materials has compelled a closer and longer examination, which 
we trast has not been thrown away! M. Bayle has quoted our views 
very fairly, and we hope he will yet see reason to adopt them. His 
memoir was accompanied by a critical notice froia M. Deshayes con- 
taining the following passages :— 

“ Le travail de M. Woodward est Je plus complet qui ait été publié 
sur l’ensemble des Rudistes. Cependant il reste bien des parties qui 
auraient demandé une discussion plus approfondie, des caractéres qui, 
au point de vue zoologique, auraient pu étre plus largement exposés 
et discutés.” 

“Avec le travail de M. Woodward, on pouvait encore concevoir 
des doutes sur quelques parties, et notamment sur le nombre et la 
position des muscles. Ce naturaliste suppose Vexistence d’un 
muscle adducteur des valves de chaque cdté de la charniére, exacte- 
ment comme dans les Sphérulites; ce second muscle se serait at- 
taché dans la profondeur de l'une des cavités cardinales de la valve 
inféricure et au sommet de l’une des apophyses de la valve supérieure ; 
mais les piéces préparées par M. Bayle ne laissent plus de doute A ce 
sujet ; les deux impressions musculaires sont portées d’un méme 
eoté, par suite d’un renversement de l’animal, comparable 4 ce qui 
existe chez les Hippopes et les Tridacnes, ainsi que M. Bayle lui-méme 
a parfaitement compris ; tout l’appareil musculaire, se trouvant 

* “Mannal of the Mollusea,’ pt. ii. p. 279 (1854), and Quarterly Journal of the Geol. 
Soc., vol. xi. p. 40, 1855. (Read May 24, 1854.) 


376 THE GEOLOGIST. 


transporté sur le cété antérieur de animal, n’est plus en antagonisme 
direct avec le ligament, et nous comprenons trés-bien les motifs de 
Vhésitation de M. Woodward a ce sujet. L’absence d’un muscle du 
cté postérieur de la coquille laisse 4 deviner l’usage des deux arétes 
saillantes dans l’intérieur du méme coté, et celui des oscules de la 
yalve supérieure qui leur correspondent. J’accueillerais volontiers 
Vidée de M. Bayle, qui suppose aux oscules la fonction de laisser 
pénétrer l’eau dans la cavité du manteau, et ils correspondraient aux 
siphons de Vanimal; c’est une vue théorique qui peut paraitre plau- 
sible, mais qui n’a rien de prouveé.”* 

It must be regretted that M. Deshayes, whose notoriety as a con- 
chologist was increased at the time by the circumstance of being 
President of the Geological Society of France, should have enunciated 
views which would be inexcusable in the veriest tyro in malacology. 
Their publication was the more surprising to me, because he had only 
just before examined my materials very fully and deliberately, and 
expressed his entire approval of my conclusions. If the author of 
the ‘ Mollusques Algériennes’ would have taken the trouble to read 
my account of the Zrzdacna,t or, better still, if he had examined for 
himself one of the specimens brought home by Quoy and other cele- 
brated voyagers, who have enriched the public museums of France, 
he would not have attributed to that bivalve a structure altovether 
incompatible with lamellibranchiate organization. 

The readers of the ‘ Geologist’ will pardon us for reminding them 
of such an elementary fact as that the bivalve shells like Chama 
are closed by two shell-muscles (adductors), one situated over or 
behind the mouth of the animal, the other zm front of the posterior 
portion of the digestive canal. The whole body of the animal hes 
between them. The posterior adductor is developed first, and is in- 
variably present. ‘The anterior is usually smaller, and is wanting in 
the “monomyary ” families, Ostreid@, Pectinide, Anomiade, Tridac- 
nide, and most of the Aviculide. In Mulleria it is always lost by 
the breaking away of the front of the valves, and sometimes it is 
worn away in Clavagella. In Pholas the expansion and reflection of 
the front margin gives the anterior adductor a position which converts 
it into a cardinal muscle. In Zridacna the single shell-musele is 
placed just as in the oyster; that which M. Deshayes has mistaken 
for a second adductor, is the pedal muscle, which 1s conspicuous in 
all bivalves spinning a byssus, or having a powerful foot. 

The posterior adductor of the Hippurite is situated exactly as in 
the Radiolite, but the supporting process projects vertically mstead 
of expanding horizontally, and passes down into, but does not nearly 
fill, the deep pit between the hinge-teeth and the projecting ridge (m), 
which we have compared to the muscular plate of Cucullea and 
other bivalves. The position of this muscle is well represented by 
Goldfuss (at ¢’), in his small figure of the mould of H. Lapetrousiv. 

* Bull. Soe. Géol. France, séance du 21 mai 1855 (published March, 1856.) 


+ Ann. Nat. Hist., Feb. 1855, p. 100, and Supplement to ‘ Manual of Mollusca,’ p. 469. 
t Especially Cardilia, Megalodon, Pachyrisma, Diceras, and Caprotina. 


a ie ae 


‘ ail 


Malt Sie 


= 


PLATE XXIT. 


\\\ 
} \\ 


? 


a=—S 


Wily 


BARRETTIA MONILIFERA. 


Hippurite Limestone, Jamaica. 


(R 


\ / jj) | 
alll ML 
CD SS 


Upper Valve. 


INTERIORS OF 


educed one-fifth.) 


Lower Valve. 


HIPPURITE, ANGOULEME. 


ee ee ee a o> ae LE SRES ESTER TALS 


el as, 


WOODWARD—SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA. B77 


(Petref. vol. ii. pl. 165, fig. 5, ce). We have before pointed out that it 
is essential there should be space for the alimentary canal to pass 
between the hinge and posterior shell-muscle of a bivalve, and we 
have shown that such an opening is provided in the Hippurite and 
Radiolite by the undercutting of the muscular apophysis, which 
would otherwise close the whole interval (fig. 2, 7). There is a 
hippurite in the British Museum which is hollow and empty, having 
been lined with only a thin film of spar. It is broken open at the 
side, and a wire has been passed round in the direction of the dotted 
line in fig. 5, ¢ w, which is the course that must have been taken by 
the alimentary canal in the living animal. The nearest approxima- 
tion to the hinge-structure of this genus is presented by the little 
Caprotine, found in soft yellow marls of Le Mans, in the Department 
of Sarthe, which may be cleared from the matrix without difficulty. 

With respect to the other suggestion, that the two depressions in 
the lid of the Hippurite, (the ocwli in H. bioculatus,) may be openings 
to facilitate the admission and escape of the branchial currents, it is 
only needful to observe that they have no existence as orifices, except 
in weathered specimens. These spots in the operculum correspond 
to the projecting columns in the lower valve, and fit down upon them 
closely. In the upper valve of H. Loftusi, figured in the ‘ Geological 
Journal’ (pl. 3, fig. 4), portions of the columns remain adhering to the 
spots; and in the specimens now represented from Angouléme (figs. 
6 and 7) the removal of the inner layer of shell has exposed the cor- 
responding columns in each valve, while a portion broken from the 
lower valve is still attached to the upper, and shows the closeness of 
the contact at the place of the imaginary openings. The probable 
relation of the second column (x) to the respiratory currents of the 
animal was first suggested in our former descriptions. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 
PLATE XX, 


Fig. 1.—Barrettia monilifera ; group of three individuals, much reduced. 

Fig. 2.—Longitudinal section of the upper part of a large specimen, reduced one-fifth. 

Fig. 8.—Longitudinal section of a fragment, taken upon the line of union of three in- 
dividuals. : 

Vig. 4.—Transverse section of the same specimen. 


Prats  XXI. - 


Pig. 5.—Transverse section of the same specimen as Fig. 2: 2 d, line of section; 
r, body-cavity of lower valve; ~, umbonal cavity; 2, dental process of lower valve; ¢ 7, 
dental process of upper valve; @ a’, adductor processes ; ¢ c’, cartilage pits; m, muscular 
inflection ; 7, siphonal inflection ; 2, probable course of alimentary canal and exhaleut cur- 
rent ; 2, canals and canaliculi of upper valve. 

Vig. 6,—Interior of upper valve of hippurite from Angouléme, with part of the wall 
of the lower valve adhering to it (marked x); the inner shell-layer wanting. 

Fig. 7.—Interior of a lower valve from the same place. 


VOL. V. 3 ¢ 


378 


THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 
By W. H. Benstep, Esa. 
(Continued from page 341.) 


The lower mandible of a chimzera—the first discovered in the Lower 
Greensand—is now in the collection of Sir Philip Egerton, who in- 
forms me it belongs to the species Ischyodus Agassiz. Since this 
discovery I have met with many more specimens, some of smaller size ; 
but, from the difficulty of extracting them from the stone, L have never 
succeeded in getting one so perfect. Several good specimens have been 
procured from the Lower Chalk at Burham. The chimera approaches 
in form to the shark tribe, but it is far from being so ravenous in its 
disposition. Recent species are found in the Arctic and in some of 
tle European seas, and attaining the length of two or three feet. 
Being often taken in the company of the herrings in their migrations, 
it has thus gained the patronymic of “king of the herrings.” The 
mouth of this odd-looking fish is furnished with hard and undivided 
plates instead of teeth, four of which are placed on the upper and 
two on the lower jaw. 

Fossils are very rare in the succeeding “rugged flint layers,” 
which have an average thickness of eight inches. 

The next stratum in the quarry to be noticed is the “grey has- 
sock’”’ bed. This stone is of very good texture for building, and 
contains a small species of Belemnite, which I have not seen in 
in any other layer. In this hassock there runs a thin bed of minute 
polished pebbles about the size of a pin’s head, of various colours, 
and with them are mixed a profusion of small sharp-pointed fish-teeth. 
This accumulation appears to have been the result of a partial cur- 
rent, which carried away the small sand, leaving the larger pebbles as 
described. A species of Siphonia occurs in large quantities, marking 
the hassock with dark-grey wavy lines, but the stems are seldom dis- 
tinct enough to be extracted from the stone. 

There next follows a concretional layer, in which fossils rarely 
occur; then a soft hassock; and then a lower molluskite bed, similar 
to the upper one, with fossils. 

“Soft hassock, No. 18,” is a group of three layers of blue limestone, 
with two beds of hassock, having a total thickness of six feet. The 
group occupies a vertical space of about six feet. The shells found 
are peculiar to these beds, occurring only in them; and there is also 
an immense accumulation of detached spicule—the remains of dead 
sponges. It is in this group that the Scaphite makes its first general 
appearance, one specimen only having been met with higher in the 
series (in layer No. 2), but I have not been able to decide if that be- 
longs to the same species. 

This is followed by “soft limestone;’’? and to this, again, succeeds 


a second bed of “soft hassock’’ (No. 14) which presents us witha 


very large species of fucus or siphonia, in great profusion. It is 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 379 


traced in the hassock without difficulty from its clear blue colour, 
and by being composed of limestone. Within the stem a pith or cavity 
runs fora considerable distance, and portions have a ferruginous tinge. 
Very large specimens show the branched form of this organism. 
Another “ soft limestone’’ next occurs, the same character as that 
recorded above. 

The “soft hassock”’ (No. 15) has some interest attached to it by 
the discovery of a tooth of the Polyptychodon, of a much larger size 
than the one described at page 338. ‘The enamel of this tooth is so 
friable that much of it shivered off in clearing away the sandstone 
which enveloped it, but enough remains to show the strize which are 
one of its characteristic features. A rolled pebble or boulder of granite 
was found in this bed of “ spicule hassock ;” it weighs 83 lbs., and 
is of a flat oblong shape, about eight inches one way by five the 
other, and three inches thick. Jt has some Flustra attached to its 
surface, and the impression of a 'I'rigonia is perceptible on one side. 
The latter seems to have been caused by the weight of the superin- 
cumbent strata pressing the shell close on the surface of the granite, 
although how the tracery of its form was impressed on so hard a sub- 
stance is not easily to be understood. The Trigonia has not entered 
the boulder, but the outline is on the surface. For the granite, how- 
ever, it is a seal identifying its locality. The occurrence of a fragment of 
primitive rock in a Secondary formation is interesting ; and its solitary 
occurrence in a bed free from pebbles, and even coarse sand, gives 
rise to speculative conjecture as to the means of its envelopment. 
The sand is of very fine texture, and contains an immense quantity 
of detached spicule of dead sponges. The skeleton of a marine tur- 
tle was found not very far off, and a tooth of Polyptychodon occurred 
near the same spot. We have now causes in action giving rise to 
similar results. The sand from the coasts of New South Wales or 
some parts of Africa contains abundance of spicule of all descrip- 
tions; the same is the case with the sand from the West India Is- 
lands, arising from the decomposition of myriads of spongeous bo- 
dies with which the bottom of the seas in those regions is covered. 
There can be no doubt but that the sand of the sandstone of the 
Lower Greensand here has been accumulated under similar cireum- 
stances. Skeletons of the turtles, and teeth and bones of the fishes 
inhabiting that ancient sea, are found mingled with the sand and de- 
tached spicule, but the boulder was probably rolled into its spherical 
figure in association and in contact with fragments of rock of equal 
size and hardness with itself. The presence of the cells of the deli- 
cate Hlustra shows clearly that it had not been rolled in the sand in 
which it was enveloped, and the attachment of a small shell to its 
surface indicates a tranquil state of the waters around it. It is dif_i- 
cult to account for its presence. Icebergs are known to transport 
fragments of rock to a considerable distance, but an objection to the 
iceberg-carriage is found in the present case in the high temperature 
of the Lower Greensand sea, which was inhabited by tropical species 
of shells and zoophytes. 


380 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The “Black Greys” (border) is one of the most remarkable of 
the whole series of beds displayed in the Iguanodon quarry. Its 
sandy border contains an immense accumulation of organic remains 
—all marine, with the exception of fragments of wood perforated by 
teredines, of which animals, in most cases, the sheaths remain. The 
sandstone is of a dark grey, hard and coarse in texture, and about 
twelve inches thick. A portion is full of the casts and markings of 
Siphonie and Fucus Targonit. Casts of Trigonia al@formis are very 
abundant, and, as in the Molluskite laver, the shells are open, and 
of the dead mollusks the carbonaceous matter is found in large quan- 
tities. At the junction of the hassock with the limestone beneath 
it, two beds containing shells in great profusion. The first contains 
chiefly the shells of a Panopea, but the substance of the shell is now 
nothing more than a slight film of lime, which falls to dust when dry. 
The difficulty of vetting specimens is also ereatly increased by thes 
crushed condition, being almost flattened by the pressure they have 
undergone. Immediately under this vein of shells, and sometimes 
mingling with them, is seen for the first time a bed of the charac. 
teristic Gryphea, or Exogyra. These shells often occur in groups of 
considerable numbers, and I have had five good specimens within a 
thickness of stone not exceeding three inches. ‘This bed of shells 
appears to have only existed for a short period, as the occurrence of 
an individual in any part of the remaining portion of the layer 1s 
rarely seen ; and, indeed, the stone is remarkably free from any re- 
mains of animal life. The accumulation of Siphoniz gives the rough 
fracture so generally found in ragstone, but occasionally a smooth 
flat surface is obtained by cleavage. The hassock contains many 
nodules of clear blue limestone, very similar to septaria. This oc- 
currence in the coarse sandstone is remarkable, as the stone is of a 
very clear structure, light blue in colour, and in some instances of a 
pear-shaped figure, ‘from which I attribute their origin to zoophytic 
structure, although no traces of such structure has been detected. 

Below the last-mentioned layer the stone is of inferior quality. The 
fossils are of the same kind as those oceurring in the border of the 
“Black Greys.” The only opportunity I have had of examining 
them was during the sinking of a well, when water was found at 
twelve feet below the “Black “Greys.” Detached spicule, Trigonie, 
Plagiostome, stems of Siphonie, Plicatule, and Belemnites, were 
very pbun dant. The layers were as under :— 


Concretionary masses of greyish limestone, from 6 to 12 inches in thickness. 
Few fossils. 


Hard coarse hassock, 2 feet in thiekness. Siphonize in large masses ; casts of 
Trigonie aleformis. ; 

Thin layer of stone, 

Soft hassock, about 6 inches, with spiculee. 

Grey-blue limestone of clear fracture. Few shells. 6 to 7 inches thick. 

Hard hassock, 18 inches. Impressions of Siphonie. 


Water was then found in loose rubbly layers of stone. 
Having now terminated the description of the series found in my 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 381 


quarry, we pass on to the other members of the Lower Greensand 
found in the Maidstone district. Below the Kentish rag beds comes 
the Atherfield clay. This formation is passed through in the railway- 
cutting at Tetsom, where it is seen basseting out from beneath the 
hills of ragstone. A list of the fossils of this division of the Lower 
Cretaceous rocks has been published by Dr. Fitton in the Transac- 
tions of the Geological Society, vol. iv. part 2, 1836. 

The junction with the Weald clay may be clearly traced at this place, 
and laminated beds of fawn-coloured stone are met, containing seams 
of small Paludins, Cyprides, 


teeth and bones of fish, and SrcTion or A Borine AT Mr. Fisn’s 
also the elytra, or wing-cases, _ BREWERY. 
of beetles. In 1851, the Weald 12 feet. Débris of Medway, gravel 


clay was met with in digging §=|————_ flints, rolled rag-stone. 

a drain in St. Faith’s Street 

(Maidstone). At a depth of 

from eight to ten feet, a series 

of slate-coloured slabs of stone 88 feet. Atherfield clay (stiff blue 


was found, in which Wealden ay) 

fossils (Cypris) were to be seen 

lying in close proximity. The phe 

edges of these slabs were round- 
ed, and a ferruginous border of 30 feet. Wea , gue (fine-grained 
@ quarter of aninch enveloped. |__| _8**)s"™ a 

the stone. I conjecture that __1 feet. | Red, blue, and yellow clay. 


it is this border which is found 
in a broken and waterworn 
state, mixed with the drift, at 


30 feet. Grit and clay (greenish-grey) 
with Paludina. 


Stratum of Bethersden 


Watious places>round Maid-° |——-———— arbi: 
stone. 

In 1847, Mr. Fish com- 45, feet. Very hard close-grained 
menced a boring for the sup- brown sands. 
ply of water for his brewery. |— 3 tect. | Variegated clays (red and 
Wishing to obtain a supply [~~~ |_| white). 


free from the acidity of de- 
cayed vegetable matter, he set 
out with the intention of going 
sufficiently deep to secure that 
result. After passing through 
about twelve feet of the débris 
of theancient Medway, he came 90 feet. Blue clay, with crushed 
to a dark-blue clay of soapy shells.” 

texture, with veins of greyish 
white. No fossils were ob- 
tained. In this clay a supply | 
of water was obtained, but it v 
was not equal to the demand,—the water, turbid from the clay which 
it held in suspension, requiring a long time for its precipitation. 
After next passing through about 88 fect of clay, a bed of fine- 


4.0 feet. Brown sand. 


360 feet. 


382 : THE GEOLOGIST. 


grained sand was met, 30 feet in thickness; the sand, when dry, 
was of a greyish white. Then followed a bed of clay, red, blue, and 
yellow, 10 feet. At 170 feet, a most interesting bed of grit and clay, 
of a light green, was found, with many fragments of Paludine iden- 
tical with those of the Wealden clays elsewhere. At 10 feet below 
this, astratum of hard limestone gave great obstruction to the boring. 
This bed, from an inspection of two small fragments, I believe to be 
a layer of the Bethersden marble, containing Paludine of much 
smaller size than those of the clay above. About 45 feet of very 
compact brown sands now gave great opposition to the auger, as the 
friction wore its edge rapidly away. Mottled clay, red and white, 
sometimes streaked with much regularity, was next pierced for 5 
feet, and a second brown sand passed through for 40 feet. <A bed of 
blue clay, with crushed shells, to the extent of 90 feet, was now bored 
into, and a supply of water was considered to have been met with ; 
but the quantity was not large, and the water was turbid. The total 
depth sunk was 360 feet. 

Several other borings have been begun at various places, but have 
not been gone on with toa depth sufficient to pass through the 
Weald clay. The marine blue clay (Atherfield) I have noticed as 
far from the cropping out at Teston as the north-west side of the 
town; and opposite the depot, and close to the river, a depth of 50 
feet of blue clay was entered by a railway surveyor. 

At Turkey Mill (Whatman’s) a blue clay was found near the sur- 
face, in the valley, with a layer of Paludine a foot in thickness, very 
compact, the shells belonging to a very small species. This locality 
is at least five miles from the escarpment of greensand at Linton. 


(To be continued.) 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 


Canava.—The collection of specimens of rocks and minerals from Canada, 
exhibited by the Government Geological Survey, is, as a practical and com- 
plete industrial collection, unequalled by any other mineral collection in 
the whole Exhibition; and the catalogue of 90 closely printed pages which 
accompanies them is a masterpiece of its kind, and well worthy of its 
eminent and indefatigable author, Sir William Logan. Besides the col- 
lection of specimens, the published geographical and geological maps, the 
palzontological books and plates, and the printed reports of the survey are 
also exhibited. From the index to the geological maps we get, of course, 
the recognized geological groups of rocks and the order of their succession. 
So far as this index at present goes, it does not carry us higher than the Car- 
boniferous series. Of the mineral specimens, amongst the metals and their 
ores the most remarkable are those of the bog-iron ore from Radnor Forges, 
Batescan; deposits of bog-iron ore of alluvial age are spread out, in greater 
or less abundance, from the north side of the St. Lawrence, and between 
it avd the Lawrentide Hills, all the way from St. Anne des Plaines to 


HO 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXITIBITION. 200 


Portneuf—a distance of more than a hundred miles. In this area the ore 
seems to be concentrated in the neighbourhood of the St. Maurice and 
Batesean rivers; and iron has been smelted in the neighbourhood of these 
three rivers for upwards of a century. The ore with which the Radnor 
furnaces are supplied is derived from the seignories of Cap de la Made- 
laine and Champlain, where it occurs close to the surface in a multitude of 
patches of from 3 to 24 inches in thickness. It is brought to the furnaces 
partly by the workmen of the Forge Company and partly by the various 
farmers on whose lands the ore occurs. The ore is washed at the smelting- 
works to free it from soil, and it then contains from 40 to 50 per cent. 
of iron. Other specimens of bog ore are exhibited, from Vaudreuil, where 
the bed is from 4 to 8 feet thick, and there lies beneath it in some parts a 
thin stratum of blue phosphate of iron. At St. Vallier in Bellechasse 
there is an interrupted bed of from 12 to 20 miles thick and over 10 or 
15 square miles, near the junction of the two branches of the Riviere du 
Sud. 

Of red hematite, or oligist ore, there is a fine sample from an unworked 
bed of 30 feet thick, resting upon crystalline Laurentian limestone, and 
limited at top by the magnesian limestone of the calciferous group. Ana- 
lysis gives 58 per cent. of iron. 

Of magnetic ore there are highly interesting samples. From Sutton we 
have it from a bed 12 feet thick, consisting of dolomite abounding in 
small crystals of the magnetic oxide of iron. From the ‘big iron-ore 
bed of Marmora,” which is not however a single bed, but a succession— 
over 100 feet thick—interstratified between gneiss or crystalline limestone. 
From Hadborough and Crosley, from a bed 200 feet thick in gneiss; 
samples of numerous other beds in Laurentian gneiss are also displayed ; 
and there is a specimen of ilmenite with rutile from St. Urbain, Bay of 
St. Paul. The latter bed is 90 feet thick, and interstratified in anorthorite 
rock, also of Laurentian age. Samples of lead ores are shown from the 
Lower Helderberg group, Quebee group, Calciferous formation, and the 
Laurentian rocks—in the latter case cutting crystalline limestone ;—of 
copper from Laurentian gneiss, and from the well-known Bruce Mines, 
where a group of lodes intersect a thick mass of greenstone trap in the 
Huronian formation; from Acton, in dolomite, at the base of the Quebee 
group; and from many other mines in that formation: native from a lode 
in St. Ignace Island, Lake Superior, where the vein cuts a thick mass of 
amygdaloidal diorite conformable with the strata,—the vein is about 
5 inches thick, and many of the masses of native copper weigh upwards of 
100 lbs., accompanied by native silver, in a gangue of calespar. Copper- 
ore is shown from other places, all in the Quebec group; amongst them 
Mamainse, on Lake Superior, from whence is 450 lbs. in a single sheet 
from a vein. The promontory of Mamainse consists of various layers 
of coarse conglomerate and of amygdaloidal greenstone, in one of 
the bands of the latter bay intersected by a narrow fissure running 
N. and §8., nearly in the strike of the beds; its greatest width is 
6 inches, and in some places it is found to be nearly filled with native 
copper; other veins intersect the same rock. In ancient shallow holes 
sunk at intervals along the course of some of these veins of metallic copper 
there are occasionally found the remains of Indian hammers, consisting 
of small boulders usually of trap, having shallow grooves worked round 
them to receive the withes or thongs attaching the handles—evidence of 
the rude aboriginal attempts at mining many centuries since. From the 
pete group we have also sulphuret of nickel (Millerite) and native 
silver, 


384 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Tt has long been ascertained that the drift of the south side of the 
St. Lawrence, from Lake Champion to the Ktchemin and probably to the 
extremity of Gaspé, is auriferous; the area being about 15,000 square 
miles. Gold has been washed from this gravel on the St. Francis in 
Melbourne, at Sherbrooke in Westbury, Weedon, and Dudswell, and on 
Lake St. Francis, Riviere des Plantes (Vaudreuil), and along the Riviére 
du Loup, near its junction with the Chaudiére. From the numerous smail 
masses of gold obtained from the Chaudiere valley, there cannot be much 
doubt that the drift-gold of the region has been derived from quartz veins 
situated probably not very far distant. Gold grains have been seen in 
a quartz vein, between 2 and 3 feet thick, cutting the bluish-black slate 
of the Quebec group about a mile below the St. Francis Rapids. 

Among the gold-drift of the Chaudiere there are met in small quantities 
grains of platinum and of iridosmine,—an alloy of the rare metals iridium 
and osmium, which, being very hard, is used for pointing gold pens. 
Some of the gold met with also has been found thinly coated with a mer- 
curial amalgam ; but no trace of cinnabar, the common form of ore of mer- 
cury, has been observed in the drift. Amongst the substances met with 
by the Canada Gold Mining Company, in separating the gold from the 
drift, are lead shot of various sizes, from partridge to swan shot, and which 
are nearly as abundant as the gold. 

Of the minerals applicable to chemical manufactures we have chromic 
iron, from the Quebec group; molybdenite, from Laureutian gneiss; co- 
baltiferous pyrites, from Laurentian gneiss. In the Eastern Townships a 
vast quantity of dolomite occurs. Stratigraphically it is at the base of the 
Quebec group, where magnesian rocks are associated with the sulphurets 
of copper and other metals. One of the rocks associated with or replacing 
the dclomite is magnesite. Specimens are shown from Sutton and Bolton. 
The finest kind contains 80 per cent. of magnesia, with a portion of carbo- 
nate of iron. In Bolton it forms an enormous bed, resembling crystalline 
limestone. Though the use of this mineral as an economic source of mag- 
nesiais on a large scale, its most important application is for the manufac- 
ture of a cement to resist the action of sea-water. 

Petroleum, or rock-oil, in all its states, such as green or mineral tar from 
the surface, crude oil from the well, refined or burning oil, and lubricating 
oil for machinery, is exhibited by the Canadian Oil Company. The bitu- 
muinous shale of the Utica formation yields, when distilled, from 3 to 4 per 
cent. of tarry oil, which by the usual process of rectification yields oil for 
illumination and lubrication. 

Magnificent specimens of phosphate of lime (apatite) are sent from 
North Elmsley and South Burgess. At the former place the deposit has 
been traced for a distance of a mile, apparently forming an irregular bed 
on the Laurentian limestone. On lot 25, where it has been quarried, the 
breadth of the bed is about ten feet, of which three feet are nearly pure 
erystalline apatite, with only a small admixture of black mica; the re- 
mainder is mingled with limestone, the phosphate predominating. This 
deposit seems to be continued south-westerly through Burgess. 

We now pass to the Refractory Minerals. Among the magnesian rocks 
at the base of the Quebec group, in that part of its distribution where it is 
in a metamorphic state, soapstone, or steatite occurs in great abundance. 
Beds of it, varying from 1 to 16 feet thick, can be traced for long distances, 
usually not far removed from serpentine-dolomite or magnesite, or appa- 
rently replacing one of these rocks. In general the soapstone is remark- 
ably pure, but occasionally there are disseminated in it crystals of bitter 
spar or of actinolite. The specimens exhibited are from Sutton and Bolton. 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 385 


A considerable portion of the rocks of the Quebee group in their meta- 
morphie condition consists of chloritic slates, which appear to occupy a 
higher stratigraphical position than the magnesian strata just noticed. 
Magnesian mica, or phlogopite, occurs abundantly in small scales in the 
crystalline limestone of the Laurentian system, but sometimes also in 
erystals sufficiently large to be economically available. Among its asso- 
ciated minerals are commonly quartz, pyroxene, and feldspar, and occa- 
sionally tabular spar, apatite, spheric iron pyrites, idocrase, garnet, tour- 
maline, zircon, and corundum. In Grenville crystals of mica have been 
obtained, giving sheets measuring 24 by 14 inches. In North Burgess, 
where it has been mined, the mica is embedded in a soft pyroxenic rock 
and lgnited by a band of quartzite on the south side. The mica there ap- 
pears to run for 75 yards in tolerably regular bands, and some of the 
sheets after being dressed are as much as 20 inches square; some have 
been obtained measuring 20 by 30 inches. The crystalline limestones of 
the Laurentian system are marked almost universally by the occurrence 
of graphite or plumbago in small scales, which are often so thickly disse- 
minated in particular bands of the rock as to give them a black or dark 
grey colour, distinctly marking the stratification. Plumbago also occurs 
in beds, of sufficient purity and quality to be economically available. The 
workable beds are chiefly on the north side of the Ottawa, and occur in 
many localities at considerable distances from one another, but several of 
the exposures are probably repetitions of the same bed, or at any rate of 
beds approximately equivalent in repetition of the same band of Laurentian 
limestone. The whole Laurentian series is so corrugated that the outcrop 
of one of these bands of limestone in the counties of Argenteuil and Two 
Mountains, followed through all its windings in an area of fifty miles by 
twenty, measures upwards of two hundred miles. A bed of pure graphite 
occurs in the augmentation of Grenville township, and has been traced at 
intervals for a distance of three miles. One of these exposures has been 
mined by Messrs. Russell & Co., and at the opening of the excavation the 
eraphite showed a thickness of ten inches; but the pure substance was 
found to form a lenticular mass, separated from cther masses of the same 
character by intervals in which the graphite became mixed with the lime- 
stone. It is probable that a number of these lenticular masses running 
through the rock at the same horizon may represent the general character 
of the workable beds. Asbestos, generally a fibrous serpentine or chryso- 

lite, occurs in veins cutting the serpentine of the Quebec group in the 
Eastern Townships (St. Joseph Seigniory). A friable sandstone in the 
Potsdam formation occurs at Pittsburgh, twenty feet thick, and is much 
in demand for protecting the sides and bottoms of iron foundries. it is sup- 
plied to those at Montreal and Toronto, at distances of a hundred and se- 
venty miles in opposite directions. 

Of the minerals applicable to common or decorative construction it 
would be perhaps of no great service to English geologists to give very 
minute details. Still however the characters of the samples, as indicative 
of the nature of the rocks constituting the formations to which they belong, 
will be at least interesting. We begin with a sample from one of the bands 
of crystalline limestone of the Laurentian series from the Lac des Chats. 
Another building-stone comes from Phillipsburg (St. Armand); the rock 
is compact and crystalline, and of considerable strength. A few obscure 
fossils show the formation to be the Calciferous of the Quebee group. 
There are specimens of building-stones from Caughnawagu, St. Dominique, 
and Kast Hawkesbury, all from the Chazy formation, which in those dis- 
tricts is composed of massive beds yielding blocks of stone fitted for canal 

von. Y. 3 D 


386 THE GEOLOGIST. 


locks and railway bridges. The beds abound with the remains of eneri- 
nites and cystidians, and these give to the rock a crystalline texture which 
constitutes one of its valuable characters. The stones from Pointe Claire 
and Cornwall belong to the Bird’s Eye and Black River formation. They 
are black, compact, and thick-bedded. The Trenton formation, which is 
next above the “‘ Bird’s Eye and Black River,” yields excellent building- 
stone at Montreal, at Chevrotiére, and many other places. The best stone 
in Montreal is from a ten-feet band of grey bituminous limestone near the 
base of the formation, and which is a mass of comminuted organic remains 
consisting largely of the ruins of crinoids and cystidians. The best houses 
in Montreal are built of this stone. The strata in the neighbourhood of 
that city are much traversed by trap dykes, which have probably a cognec- 
tion with an intrusive mass extending over seven hundred acres, and con- 
stituting Mount Royal, from which the city and the island take their names. 

The Niagara formation, the equivalent of our Middle Silurian, produces 
a beautiful and enduring dolomite at Owen Sound. A rather more com- 
pact dolomitic stone comes from the lower part of the Niagara formation 
at Noisy Clear Falls, Nottawasaga. Another excellent specimen is shown . 
from Rookwood, Eramosa. The Guelph formation extends over a large 
area, and much of the rock is of the same character as the specimen in the 
collection from the thriving town of Guelph, where the quarries expose 
about 15 feet of light grey erystalline dolomite; easily worked, it is 
suitable for the best architectural purposes, and appears to be very durable. 
But Oxbow, on’ the Saugeen River, furnishes the best dolomite for fine 
architectural purposes which has yet been discovered in Canada. It 
resembles Caen stone in the facility with which it can be worked; but it 
is vloser-grained and by no means so absorbent. There are two bands of 
stone there, each about 10 feet thick, in the upper part of the Onondaga 
formation ; the above is from the upper band: the lower band has a very 
light grey oolitic bed, 17 inches thick, that is much used for supporting 
water-wheels in mills in the neighbourhood, and is found to answer well, 
becoming highly polished under the action of a revolving shaft. Lyn, 
Hlizabethtown, Nepean, Grenville, Quin’s Point, furnish specimens of the 
Potsdam sandstone, which consiitutes the summit of the lowest group of 
fossiliferous rocks in Canada. At Lyn the massive beds of that formation 
are seen resting on Laurentian gneiss. Amongst other samples are, from 
Pembroke, a fine freestone from the Chazy beds ; from Hamilton, Burton, 
a fine-grained sandstone, 10 feet in thickness, the “grey band” of the 
Medina formation (Middle Silurian) ; from Georgetown, Esquesing, and 
Nottawasaga, a light-grey freestone, 20 feet thick (Medina ‘“‘grey band”) ; 
and from North Cayuga a white sandstone belonging to the Oriskany for- 
mation (Devonian), which runs through Haldemand county in Lower Ca- 
nada. Krom Abercrombie, labradorite from the Laurentian formation ; it is 
of the opalescent variety, which occurs in cleavable masses in a fine-grained 
base of the same mineral, composing mountain masses. When these are 
thickly disseminated in the paste, the stone becomes a beautiful decorative 
material, applicable to architectural embellishment and articles of furni- 
ture. Its hardness is about that of ordinary feldspar, and it would in 
consequence be more expensive to cut and polish than serpentine or 
marble, but it is not so readily scratched or broken, and would therefore 
prove more lasting. Professor Emmons states that a block submitted to the 
action of a common saw used in sawing marble, moved by the waste power 
of a common water-mill, was cut to the depth of 2 inches in a day, which 
is understood to be one-fifth the amount that would be cut in a block 
of good marble in the same time. It would thus appear, that though the 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 387 


operation is slower in the case of the labradorite there is no greater amount 
of mechanical contrivance required than for marble, and that slabs could 
be prepared for chimney-pieces and other articles of furniture at a cost 
beyond that of marble not greater than is proportionate to the superior 
beauty and durability of the material. The foot square of gneiss ought to 
be looked upon with reverence, as a sample of the oldest stratified (?) rock 
on our globe; a piece of the floor in reality of the great superstructure of 
the earth’s crust. Mr. O. Donneil, C.E., of Quebec, sends a specimen of 
the gneiss used for building the reservoir of the Quebec Waterworks on 
the St. Charles river. It is hornblendic and composed of translucent 
colourless quartz, white orthoclase (the feldspar predominating over the 
quartz), and black hornblende, all running in irregular parallel planes, 
showing the gneissoid structure very distinctly, and having at a little dis- 
tance a general grey colour. ‘The rock splits in almost any direction by 
means of wedges, but most easily on that of the gneissoid layers, particu- 
larly where these are even. ‘The layers are however occasionally affected 
by undulations and contortions, but these do not materially affect its divi- 
sion by wedges. The rock splits and dresses with most difficulty at right 
angles to the gneissoid layers. It is capable of receiving fine smooth 
faces, giving sharp edges and corners. Masses of almost any size can 
be blasted out from the rock. From Grenville we have a specimen 
of porphyroid orthoclase gneiss, which forms great mountain-ranges 
among the Laurentian rocks, rising into the highest peaks of the ortho- 
clase region, and generally constituting the main body of the rock sepa- 
rating one important band of limestone from another. These masses 
appear to attain several thousand feet in thickness, divided however at 
unequal intervals by thinner and less feldspathic bands, in which the strati- 
fication is more distinct. 

The intrusive masses of the Laurentian series consist chiefly of syenite 
and dolerite. These occur in many parts of the country, but their relative 
ages have been ascertained almost altogether by the investigation of the 
counties of Ottawa and Argenteuil. What appear to be the oldest are a set 
of dykes of a rather fine-grained dark greenish-grey greenstone or dolerite, 
yarying in thickness from a few feet to 100 yards. Their general bearing 
appears to be E. to W. ‘These greenstone dykes are interrupted by 
an intrusive syenite, a mass of which occupies an area of 36 square miles 
in the townships of Grenville, Chatham, and Wentworth; specimens of 
this syenite are exhibited,as also from a mass of a similar character occurring 
between Kingston and Gananoque. In Grenville the syenite is penetrated 
by dykes of a porphyritic character. These masses belong to what has 
been called felsite porphyry, hornstone porphyry, or orthophyre, having 
for its base an intimate mixture of orthoclase and quartz, coloured by 
oxide of iron, and varying in colour from green to various shades of black. 
Throughout the part which is homogeneous and conchoidal in its fracture, 
are disseminated well-defined crystals of a rose-red or flesh-red feldspar, 
apparently orthoclase, and less frequently small grains of a nearly colourless 
quartz. All these intrusive masses are cut by another sect of dolerite dykes, 
which probably belong to the Silurian period or perhaps to the Devonian. 

Two specimens of granite are exhibited, one from St. Joseph Beauce, 
where the band of granite—about 50 or 60 feet thick—has been worked 
for-millstones. It has a considerable proportion of quartz, and would be 
a strong and durable stone for building. It runs with the stratification 
near to a band of serpentine, and is supposed to be an altered and not an 
intrusive rock. It occurs in the Quebee group of,the Lower Silurian. 
An intrusive granite of Devonian age oceurs in considerable abundance in 


388 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the castern townships and forms many isolated hills, the whole of them of 
small size with the exception of the Great Megantic Mountain, which 
occupies an area of about 12 square miles. It is composed of white quartz 
and white orthoclase feldspar, with black mica. An area of this rock 
occurs in Stanstead, covering 6 square miles, and forming Biby Plains. 
Another occurs in Barnston, from which the second sample exhibited has 
been taken. Granite of the same character, and probably of the same age, 
is widely distributed in the State of Maine, and is traceable to New Bruns- 
wick, where it is overlaid by the carboniferous rocks. 

Marbles are exhibited from the Laurentian, Quebec, Chazy, Bird’s Kye 
and Black River, Trenton and Upper Helderberg formations; and ser- 
pentine from Oxford, Melbourne, and St. Joseph Beauce. The band of 
serpentine from different places on which the samples have been obtained 
has been traced on the south side of the St. Lawrence, from Potton 
to Cranbourne, 140 miles; in 40 miles of which it is twice repeated by 
undulations, giving an additional 80 miles to its outcrop. It is again 
recognized 250 miles further to the N.H. in Mount Albert, on the Shick- 
shock Mountains, and about 70 miles further in Mount Serpentine, 
approaching Gaspé Bay. All the specimens of the rock which have been 
analysed contain small quantities of chromium and nickel, and the band is 
associated in its distribution with soapstone, potstone, dolomite, and mag- 
nesite. The whole of these occur in large quantities, and in them as well 
as in the serpentine chromic iron occurs, sometimes in workable quantities. 

These rocks or others immediately near them contain the metals iron, 
lead, copper, nickel, silver, gold, and with the drift-gold derived from these 
beds are platinum, iridosmine, and traces of mercury. In 1847 these ser- 
pentines, from their distribution, were described in the Reports of the Sur- 
vey as altered sedimentary rock; and all subsequent observations have 
confirmed this view. Regularly stratified masses have been found in 
Mount Albert belonging to the Quebec group. 

Roofing slates are exhibited from a band of slate in immediate contact 
with the summit of the serpentine. It has a breadth of 4 of a mile, and 
dips about 80° S.E. Mr. Walton commenced opening a quarry upon it 
in 1860, and found it necessary, to gain access to the slate, to make a tunnel 
through the serpentine, to effect which, and expose a sufficient face for 
working, has taken two years, and cost 30,000 dollars. 

Up to a comparatively recent period, the usual coverings of houses in 
Canada have been wood, shingles, and galvanized iron or tin plate; but so 
many fires have happened by the use of the former that they are now 
interdicted in all large towns. Those exhibited are from Mr. Walton’s 
quarry, Which has now been in operation since 1861, and these slates are 
now being sent to distances of more than 500 miles. The strong re- 
semblance between these Melbourne slates and those from Bangor, in 
Wales, and Angers, in France, may be seen by the following analyses by 
Mr. F. Sterry Hunt :— 


Welsh. French. Canadian. 
Gilioate pak reac 60°50 57°00 64°20 
AV UIIMING fo. eek 19°70 20°10 16°80 
Protoxide of Iron . 7°83 10°98 ; 4°23 
TEIN ekesea a thine: Hesic Lek? 1:23 0-738 
INTIS OMeSIA, ee heii 2°20 3°39 3°94 
LEtOENG TR BORE ee 3°18 1-70 3 26 
OU ath dineral eee 2°20 1:30 3°07 


MVE Ir maces wane co 3°30 4.4.0 3°40 


100°08 100715 99°63 


ee ee ae 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN TIE GREAT EXHIBITION. 589 


The proximity of the serpentine leaves no doubt as to their geological 
horizon being that of the Quebec group of the Lower Silurian. Four 
other samples of slates have been sent to the Exhibition ; of these, the 
Cleveland and the Shipton slates are a continuation of the Melbourne 
band; the slates from Orford may be of the same band; but the geological 
horizon of those from Tring is uncertain, although they probably belong to 
the Quebee group. The Kingsey slates appear to be lower in the series 
than the magnesian group of strata. Flagstones are exhibited from the 
Medina “ grey band,” and hydraulic hme from the Clinton formation at 
St. Catherine’s. The bed which yields this—‘‘ the Thorold cement ”—is 
a dark brown dolomite, and 80,000 bushels have been annually made. 
There is another sample of hydraulic lime from Walkerton, made from 
beds of 2 to 11 miles, occasionally separated by layers of shale, in the 
total amounting to 15 feet, and belonging to the Onondaga formation. 
The practical manufacture of this latter cement has not however been yet 
attempted for commercial purposes. Other samples are also samples 
from Limehouse (Clinton group), Nepean (Chazy formation), Rockwood 
(Niagara group), and Magdalen River (Hudson River formation). Com- 
mon lime is shown from stone belonging to the Guelph and Onondaga 
formations, and from the building-stone of Montreal, where 270,000 tons 
are annually made. 

The common bricks exhibited are all made from drift or alluvial clays. 
Whetstones are shown from the Quebec group, Hudson River, and Medina 
formations. ‘The mica-slates also which are associated with the crystalline 
limestone of the Laurentian series are frequently of the character required 
for scythe-stones. ‘The whetstone rock occurs in immediate contact with 
a thick band of conglomerate, the pebbles of which are frequently large, 
some of them 6 inches in diameter ; they are chiefly of quartz, but some 
are of feldspar and some calcareous. The quartz pebbles are for the most 
part distinctly rounded. Some of the siliceous slates of the Huronian 
series yield very fine hones; they are usually of a green colour, and 
occupy a place in the lower part of the series. Grindstones are shown 
from the Medina ‘“‘ grey band,” and millstones from the Oriskany forma- 
tion. Millstones or dressed buhrstone (Laurentian) is also exhibited from 
Grenville. This buhrstone constitutes a series of veins cutting an intru- 
sive mass of syenite, which occupies an area of 36 square miles, amongst 
the Laurentian rocks of Grenville, Chatham, and Wentworth. The veins 
consist of yellowish-brown or flesh-red cellular chert, and the stone has 
the chemical composition of flint or chalcedony. The attitude and asso- 
ciations of the chert show clearly that it cannot be of sedimentary origin, 
and its composition taken in conjunction with the igneous character of the 
district suggests the idea that it is an aqueous deposit which has filled up 
fissures in the syenite, and is similar in its origin to the agate or chalce- 
dony which in smaller masses are common in various rocks. Fora distance 
of perhaps 200 yards on each side of these veins of chert, while the quartz 
of the syenite remains unchanged, the feldspar las been more or less 
decomposed, and is converted into a sort of kaolin. As this process 
involves a separation of the silica from the feldspar, it is not improbable 
that it has been the origin of the veins of silex. 

Mineral manures are now an important division of economie geology. 
Gypsum is shown from the Onondaga formation on the Grand River; al- 
luvial freshwater shell-marl from deposits at New Edinburgh, Montreal, 
and many other places ; and calcareous marl is shown from Noisy River 
falls, where it covers the extensive slopes on both sides of the river, pro- 
bably covering an area of 300 acres in the vicinity of the falls, with an 


890 THE GEOLOGIST. 


s 
average thickness of 5 feet ; but the most important deposit is that on the 
great slopes of the Beaver River, in Euphrasia and Artemisia, where it is 
supposed to extend over more than a thousand acres, in the form of a strip 
on each side of the river. Under the head of mineral paints we have iron 
ochres of alluvial, and sulphate of barytes of Laurentian age. The 
barytes of Burgess and Lansdowne is derived from veins intersecting the 
Laurentian rocks. At both places the mineral, associated with calespar, 
constitutes the veinstone of some of the lead lodes met with there. ‘The 
vein yielding the Lansdowne specimen cuts Laurentian limestone. In an 
unsuccessful attempt to mine the vein for lead, it was ascertained that 28 
feet of the lode, with a breadth of 27 inches, consisted of highly crystalline 
almost colourless barytes, yielding about 10 tons to the square fathom. 
The most abundant source of barytes im Canada, so far as is known, ap- 
pears to be the veinstones of lodes carrying copper-ore on the north side 
of Lake Superior ; these however belong to the Quebec group. In Canada 
this mineral is not as yet applied to any use, but in some parts of the 
United States it is refined and ground in large quantities for use as a 
aint. 

z Amongst the minerals applicable to the fine arts, foremost is the litho- 
graphic stone (Bird’s-eye formation) from Marmora, where the Laurentian 
rocks are overlaid by 20 feet of unfossiliferous compact limestone, one of 
the beds of which is well adapted for lithography, and has been traced by 
occasional exposures from Hungerford to Rama, a distance of more than a 
hundred miles. Lithographic stone is also shown from the Onondaga for- 
mation at Brant and Oxbow. 

On the minerals applicable to jewellery we shall not dwell at any 
length. We have agates, labradorite, albite (persisterite), orthoclase (perth- 
ite), jasper conglomerate, epidosite. 

In the miscellaneous minerals we have feldspar (from a 20 feet wide 
Laurentian), sandstone for glass-making (Potsdam), moulding-sand (drift), 
and peat (alluvial). The peat exhibited occurs near Chambly, on the south 
side of the St. Lawrence, and was some years ago cut and sold as fuel, but 
the consumption was not enough to encourage the industry. As Canada 
is deficient in coal, when wood becomes scarce in the progress of set- 
tlement peat will gradually assume some importance as a fuel in many 
parts of the country. About 100 square miles of it extends along the 
south front of the Anticosti, and successive areas are met with on the south 
and north sides of the St. Lawrence. Large peat bogs occur between the 
Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, and there are many to the westward. The 
peat, which is sufficiently matted to hold together when dried, usually sup- 
ports a growth of prairie-grass, or ericaceous plants, or of tamarac-trees. 
That which occurs in cedar-swamps is deficient in the fibrous plants which 
give cohesion, and it falls to powder when dried. 

The Survey also exhibits an admirable collection of the crystalline rocks 
of Canada, arranged under these respective groups:—I. Laurentian. I1. 
Huronian. JIT. Lower Silurian; and IV. Eruptive; accompanied by an 
excellent catalogue by Mr. T. Sterry Hunt. We cannot however give a 
special notice, however richly it deserves it, as we have already devoted a 
very considerable space to the Canadian collection ; but the interest which 
attaches to it as representing that country, where, more than in any other 
part of our globe, the ‘bottom rocks” of the earth’s stratified crust are 
most grandly exposed, warrants the fullest attention; and the numerous 
facts which are thus briefly but accurately recorded will be found here- 
after of the highest value in considerations of the circumstances producing 
and attending the earliest history of our lowest life-containing and our 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXILIBITION. 391 


earliest stratified azoic rocks. The Laurentian and Huronian rocks of 
Canada are indeed the grand title-page and preface to the ponderous and 
intensely interesting volume of paleontological geology. 

ZOLLVEREIN (Prussia).—Into the court of whatever country we go we 
are certain to find most instructive material. Unfortunately it wants, 
however, the previous knowledge of the geologist or mineralogist to be 
able to read the lesson to be learnt. It is not fanciful geology we must 
expect to find, although the Exhibition is not without some most interesting 
and instructive collections of fossils, and of plants and trees, and wood, 
birds, beasts and fishes, which go far towards unriddling many an organic 
fragment of the past, and many an artificial compound that goes to show 
how their rock-tombs were built up. But it is hard, honest, practical 
geology that the Exhibition teaches ; it shows geology in its useful phases 
amongst the economic sciences of mankind. It is not according to their 
age or their organic contents that we find the specimens arranged, but 
according to their commercial value and importance. 

First, then, in the categories of all nations comes coal, then the metals, 
then other substances, and so on from the most important to the most rare 
or least useful. In the Zollverein court there is an extensive suite of 
specimens illustrating its chief coal-fields, namely ; those of the Hohe 
Veen, the Westphalian mountains, the Hundsriick, the Black Forest 
(Schwarzwald), the Teutobiirgerwald, and the Wiehegebirge, the Thii- 
ringerwald, the Hartz mountains, the River Saale district, Krzgebirge in 
the kingdom of Saxony, Riesengebirge, and Upper Silesia. Descriptions 
and comparisons of these with our English beds would be highly instrue- 
tive, did space permit; but it will be more interesting to pass on to those 
other coal-beds occurring in other formations, of which we either have no 
traces or only but little developed representatives. Proceeding upward 
from the carboniferous formation we find coal-seams (Lettenkohle) existing 
in the lower beds of the Keuper or new red mar! on the eastern side of the 
Black Forest, between the Schwarzwald and Odenwald. In Wiirtemberg 
also these seams appear near Oedendorf and Entendorf, where they are 
used for the alum-works, and near Mittelbronn, where they are obtained 
for general burning purposes.  Coal-seams likewise appear at other 
points in the lower part of the Keuper formation as well as in the upper, 
but not in a workable condition. The only places where available seams 
have been discovered in the Oolite formation are to the north of the Hartz 
Mountains, in the Prussian district of Wansleben and Neuhaldensleben ; 
near Gnasleben and Briinnen, in the Duchy of Brunswick; and near 
Welfensleben, where the iron-pyrites which accompany the coal are used 
at the vitriol-works. The Wealden strata only appear on the north- 
western ridges of the Hercynian hills. 

On the western edge of the Teutobiirgerwald, in the district of Tecklen- 
burg, Westphalia, a small seam of coal is seen in them on the road from 
Miinster to Ibbenbiiren, and two seams are met with near Tecklenburg, 
for a distance of 2 miles; the thicker one is 9 inckes. In the district of 
Osnabriick, in Hanover, there are 4 seams, containing 8 to 10 feet of coal : 
three of the seams offer good caking coal, the fourth is impure. Their 
south-western continuation is found in the Prussian department of Minden, 
where 4.seams, equal altogether to 6 feet of coal, have been worked for a 
long time. On the northern side of the Wiehegebirge, and near the river 
Weser, there are seams of far greater importance and extent. In the 
department of Minden 2 or 3 seams are known, the lowest of which is 10 
to 18 inches thick, and workable ; affording caking coal in the eastern part, 
whilst the western is anthracitic, ‘The seam has been worn on tbe right 


392 TILE GEOLOGIST. 


bank of the Weser 2 feet thick ; but the most important workings are in 
the county of Schaumberg-Lippe. There are also coal-seams in the 
Wealden group, in the Duchy of Brunswick. North of Bickeberg there 
is a seam of 7 inches; and east of the Schaumburg seams appear in force, 
and one of from 8 to 44 inches, of bituminous quality, is worked. Seven seams 
appear near Minder, but are not workable; but this group is met with 
again in the Osterwald, consisting of 18 seams ; three of which—27 to 40 
inches—are workable ; the middle one giving very pure bituminous coal. 
Two seams near Brinninghausen are worked: the upper one bituminous 
coal with much pyrites, 4 to 8 inches; the lower, 26 inches, gives a large 
percentage of ash. Near Mehle, 2 seams of 14 to-22 inches are worked ; 
and a continuation of this group is found at Holzminden, where 3 or 4 
seams give an aggregate of 17 inches of coal. 

In the Cretaceous group a few seams of coal appear in the Cenomanian 
sandstone (next above the Gault), near Niederschona, in Saxony ; the upper 
one, 10 to 20 inches thick, was at one time the source of mining opera- 
tions. Other small seams occur in different places, but are not workable. 
Four small ones appear in the Senonian (Upper Cretaceous) beds at 
Quedlinburg (in Magdeburg, Prussia) ; one of which has been worked at 
different times, although it contains only 12 inches of coal. The same 
coal appears in Prussian Silesia, near Wenig-Rackwitz, Ottendorf, and 
Neuen. Three seams are known in the two former places, measuring 38 to 
44, inches; the coal is of good quality, and has been worked for a long 
time at the latter place. Coal also occurs at other places in Silesia, but 
not in any beds of any importance. 

Next in importance to the true coals are the great Continental deposits 
of brown coal; and these have much interest in the eyes of geologists be- 
yond their commercial value. Although brown coal, and particularly its 
earthy varieties, possesses a very inferior heating power to coal proper, yet, 
by affording an economical kind of fuel for common purposes, the work- 
ings in many places are very considerable. The distribution of the brown- 
coal beds in the Zollverein is quite different from that of coal, and their 
extent far greater. The various deposits may however be grouped in three 
divisions,—the western one, of the Harz and the Thuringerwald; the eastern 
one, the largest in extent and the most important, between the rivers Hlbe 
and Vistula; and the southern one, on the edge of the basin of the Danube. 

In the western group the brown coal of the basin of the Lower Rhine 
begins near the Dutch frontier, and continues thence on the edge of the 
older formations and through Eschweiler, Leimersdorf, and Corsdorf down 
to the Rhine. At most points but one seam is known, although there is rea- 
son to suppose there are others below it. A seam of 17 feet has been at- 
tained at Kalk, a place nearly opposite to Cologne, at a depth of 81 feet. 
Four seams, altogether 47 feet, are known between Deutz and Kalk; and 
the seam in the district of Bonn, between Cologne and Walberberg, is from 
12 to 87 feet; between Liblen and Oberaussem it has a thickness of 66 feet, 
but the bottom of it is seldom reached. The thickness of the seam is not 
equally great at other points; for instance, at Noppenberg it is 40 feet, 
near Kschweiler 36, Duren 30, and 50 at Lissem. As corollaries to the 
basin of the Lower Rhine are the Neuwied basin, and the deposits at 
Dierdorf, Kempenich, and Eckfield. 

Many varieties of brown coal contain a large proportion of iron pyrites, 
are therefore used for the manufacture of alum. 

The brown coal of Diiren is subjected, at the Eustachia works, as it is 
also at other collieries, to various economical purposes. Messrs. Doinet 
and Vonderbeck, the proprietors of those works, get from one pound of their 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 393 


brown-coal 15 to 20 feet of gas for lighting ; 37-4 per cent. of coke, which 
is like charcoal, and much used in cupola-furnaces and for the rectification 
of spirits ; and, finally, 4°5 per cent. of tar, with 35°5 per cent. of ammoniacal 
water. This tar yields 17°5 per cent. of photogene, 26°6 of greasing oil, 
3°3 of paraffin, 16°9 asphalt, and 36-7 of kreosote. 

This brown-coal seam is 12 feet thick. The same proprietors have other 
- eollieries ; one of which, at Nabro, is excellent for the manufacture of alum, 

and at another, at Donetus, the coal has a thickness of 70 to 100 feet. 

At the Bonn Mining Company’s works, on the right bank of the Rhine, 
near Obercassel, oil is extracted from the brown coal worked. 

The brown-coal measures of the Westerwald basin are situated in the 
Duchy of Nassau. They extend from Langenaubach on the north-east to 
Hartlingen on the south-west, a length of 164 miles; or to the extreme 
outlier at Nentershausen, 233 miles by a breadth of about 18 miles from 
Cautzenbriicken to Waldhausen; the most important part being the dis- 
tricts of Marienberg, Leiningen-Westerburg, and Hartlingen. These 
measures extend northward into the Prussian district of Altenkirchen. 
The superficial extent of this field is estimated at 66 square miles, and at 
the bottom of the brown-coal seams bituminous clays of great thickness are 
met with, and small seams of dysodile. Experiments have been made with 
a view of utilizing these beds in the production of mineral oil and paraffine. 

There are brown-coal measures alsowhich extend inlarger or smaller basins 
from the Upper Rhine, near Diirkheim, to Wallensen, between the rivers 
Weser and hein, over an interrupted area of 188 miles by 57 between 
Marburgh and Tiefenort. Three groups of measures occur: to the lowest 
belong the seams worked at Zell, Hasenbriicker Hammer, and Salzhausen. 
This bed offers about 53 feet of good, and 47 feet of inferior brown coal; but 
it diminishes towards Ostheim, where it is only 20 feet thick. The middle 
group comprises the seams of Klembach and Annerod, near Giessen, avail- 
able, although not yet applied, to the manufacture of mineral oil, and the 
pyritiferous seams of Neuhof. Five to seven seams are known of an 
average thickness of 20 feet, increasing in some places to 80 feet. North of 
the Vogelsberg brown-coal measures, belonging to the lower group, extend 
as far as the Habichtswald. Besides these, there are others stretching 
out to the north and east. One seam, for instance, 100 feet thick, is worked 
near Frielendorf; another of ligneous and strong coal, 2 to 3 fathoms thick, 
near Ronneberg; a third near Ostheim; and others at Obermelsungen, 
Hesslar, Lammersberg, etc. 

In the district of Cassel a vein of 2 to 3 fathoms of coal of very good 
quality occurs, partly of shining coal (Pechkchle), in the vicinity of basaltic 
dykes. North of the Habichtswald other deposits are known. A curious 
accumulation of vegetable substances in the older alluvium, which goes 
also by the name of brown coal, may be passingly mentioned as occurring 
in the Prussian district of Héxter, Westphalia. Seams of ligneous coal, 
30 feet thick, are also known on the right bank of the Fulda, in the district 
of Cassel. South of Kaufungen the coal is 2 to 34 fathoms thick. The 
same seams extend into the district of Witzenhausen, being at Gross-Al- 
merode from 30 to 60 feet thick. Brown-coal basins also are found north 
of this district, in Hanover and Brunswick. Brown-coal measures, belong- 
ing to the lower group, are also met with at numerous places from the 
eastern side of the Vogelsberg to the Rhén mountains and the river 
Werra. The brown-coal measures on the western edge of the Rhén in 
Bavaria, are connected with the latter; these consist in part of dysodile, 
and may become important for the manufacture of mineral oils. Anthra- 
citic brown coal is found at Wiistensachsen, and to the east on the more 

VOL. V. 3 EB 


a94 THE GEOLOGIST. 


elevated parts of the Rbon mountain as far as Reupert. Hence the mea- 
sures extend through Saxe-Weimar again into Bavaria, where a seam is 
known at Bauersberg. The eastern border of these measures stretches from 
Fladern through Saxe-Meiningen. Brown coal is met with to the north 
of this, in the districts of Geisa, Lengsfeld, Tiefenort, Vacha, and Ger- 
stungen. Some specimens are exhibited by proprietors of collieries in 
Nassau, Hesse, and Bavaria. 

The brown coal of the eastern group reaches all the way from the Thu- 
ringian basin, beginning at the foot of the Kyffhauser to the extreme Sam- 
landic part of the Baltic coast,—a length of 470 by a width between 
Domitz on the lower Elbe, and Franckenstein in Silesia, of 306 miles. 
The deposits form bays and basins on the eastern and northern edges of the 
hill-country, and spread thence under the diluvial formations of the low 
country. These deposits belong to the Oligocene division of the Tertiary 
period. On the left side of the Elbe, the brown-coal measures stretch 
far into the hills of the Hercynian system, forming separate bays, which 
are only partially connected with the large basin between Miessen and 
Magdeburg, where the course of the Hlbe recedes more and more from 
the hills. The basin of Magdeburg extends from Helmstadt, in the Duchy 
of Brunswick, in a southerly direction into the Prussian district of Neu- 
haldensleben. In the district of Helmstadt the area is 18°8 miles by 4°7 
miles, and the measures there have a lower group, which contains a seam 
of 34 fathoms, and an upper group, containing probably two seams—one of 
one fathom thick and bad in quality, and another above 70 feet thick. 

The seam of the lower group is worked between Schéningen and 
Hotensleben, where it is divided into six beds, three of which give 36 feet 
of coal. Two seams near Strassfurth are from 24 to 40 feet. 

Another basin, separated from the Magdeburg by the river Saale, ex- 
tends into Anhalt-Bernburg, and far into the flat country, and forms the 
connecting link with the Thuringian basin by a great number of deposits 
of brown coal scattered over that area. In the neighbourhood of Halle 
the brown-coa!l deposits appear on the right bank of the Saale, and on the 
left, at Langenbogen. in the lake-district of Mansfeld, the seam has a 
thickness of 50 feet. The basin near Sangerhausen is very important ; 
one seam, separated by intermediate rock into 5 divisions, giving an 
ageregate of 20 feet of coal. 

In the district of Frankenhausen one seam attains the considerable 
thickness of 73 feet, and in the basin between that place and Espernstadt 
the coal attains to 84 feet in the middle, but decreases to 5 feet at the 
edges. Other deposits advance to the southern foot of the Kyffhauser. 
Brown-coal measures extend from Zscherben, on the left bank of the 
Saale, through the Merseburg and Weissenfels districts, to Skortleben 
and Burgwerben, spreading out eastward into the district of Querfurt. 

The brown-coal seams on the right bank of the Saale extend from 
Halle to Elster, where they are interrupted by a broad plain, and begin 
again near Wallendorf. One of the most important deposits covers a 
field: of nearly 385 square miles, from Hilperitz to Naundorf and Porsten. 
The greatest development of brown-coal fields occurs in the neigh- 
bourhood of Taucha, Wobau, Kopsen, Wohlitz, and Worschau, run- 
ning out from this common centre in various directions. The measures — 
of Wallendorf and Schladebach continue to the eastward into Saxony, 
where two seams are found near Priestaeblick, one 7 fathoms, the other 
about 6 feet thick. The same seam is found near Makrandstadt about 4 — 
fathoms thick, and near Quesitz 274 feet thick, below two others of, to- 
gether, LO} feet. More eastward, near Leipsic, a seam of about 2 fathoms — 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 395 


has been worked since 1704. There is a second seam beneath it of 7 
fathoms. Brown coal is worked on the rivers Pleisse and Elster, upward 
_from Leipsic, near Cannewitz, Dehlitz, and Zobigker; the deposit then 
continues as far as Groitzsch, where three seams are known, and from 
Pegau up to Oderwitz, close to the Prussian frontier, where two seams are 
won of 573 and 39 feet. This deposit becomes still more extensive, where 
the Wyhra joins the Pleisse, 7 fathoms having been bored without reaching 
the bottom. More to the south, scattered deposits are found on the right 
bank of the Pleisse; also on the left bank of the Mulde, near Wurzen, 
and on the right bank at Grehritz, Skorditz, Leipnitz (3 to 4 fathoms), 
Skoplau, and Zschadras (7 fathoms), Lausigk up to Rochlitz. Dispersed 
basins are found between the Mulde and the Elbe. 

There is also brown coal between the Elbe and the Oder. The latter 
measures appear in distinct veins at the edge of the so-called Lausitz hills, 
penetrating under the basin of Zittau, whence a connection with the im- 
portant basin of Bohemia takes place across the boundary of the Zollver- 
ein. ‘These spread out also into the low country at the foot of the Silesian 
mountains as far as Neisse, and again appear in the plain between Witten- 
berg and Domitz, and even up to the vicinity of Stettin on the Baltic. In 
Saxony small measures are found near Ortrand, Camentz, and Bautzen ; in 
Prussia near Jauer, Ratibor (2 to 3 fathoms), Buschwitz (24 to 33), and 
Doberschiitz (1; fathoms). A very important basin is met with in the dis- 
trict of Zittau; and an earthy kind of brown coal, called “ sulphur-coal,” 
is exported as a good manure to Bohemia and Silesia. From Zittau the 
brown-coal measures extend across the Prussian frontier, and follow the 
course of the Neisse in the department of Liegnitz. Very extensive seams 
are found at Schonberg (Lauban). One seam near Gorlitz is 50 feet. De- 
tached basins are known near Langendéls and near Hennersdorf, in the dis- 
trict of Jauer, containing 13 to 27 feet of coal, and to the east of Striegau 
showing 56 feet. These brown-coal measures can be followed from Roth- 
enburg to the limits of Liegnitz and Frankfurt on the Oder. ‘To the 
north the brown coal is again found near Sorau and at Lodenau, covering 
a wide expanse. There are two seams, the upper one of 80 to 85 feet. It 
is also met with to the west at Spremberg, and in the district of the 
Hoyerswerda, on the left bank of the Spree. These measures terminate 
in the Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau. 

After a long break, brown coal is again found down the Elbe in the dis- 
trict of Perleberg; and seams are known in Mecklenburg, near the Prus- 
sian frontier. 

The large basin of Freienwalde, on the Oder, is divided into several 
poss the first extending over 22 square miles, from Freienwalde to 

rankfurt ; and others lower down in the neighbourhood of Schwedt, near 
Hohen-Zahden (south of Stettin), near Herzberg, and at Bucknow. More 
southern measures appear at Rauen and Petersdorf, and then near Stre- 
ganz, the ancient monastery of Neuzelle, Einbeck, Gaemersdorf, and occu- 
vying a large tract of country in the Griineberg district, where there is 15 
foot of very excellent coal. 

There are brown-coal measures also between the Oder and Vistula. 
Single basins far apart occur at Nieder-Krinig, near Finhenwalde, where 
the seams reach 27 feet ; in Pomerania near Brietzig, Trampke, and at other 

laces on the Baltic coast. There are measures near Landsberg, on the 
Varthe (frankfurt) ; and brown coal is known near Landsberg and Kla- 
dow (7 to 20 feet), near Birnbaum, Zirke, Wronke, and Obornik (53 feet) ; 
near ‘lrattin and Lassig, Grunow, Trebow (25 feet), and Zielenzig. At 
the latter place two seams occur together, 32 feet, partly brittle and solid 


396 THE GEOLOGIST. 


and partly a woodlike coal. North-east of this is a seam 13 feet thick, at 
Gleissen, and to the eastward another, 35 feet, near Schermeissel ; and two 
thick seams are worked between Schwiebus and Lugau. These deposits 
terminate at Padligar and Radewitsch, south of Zullichau. The basin; of 
Kodben and Steinau, on the left bank of the Oder, continue their course on 
the right bank, and are known from Bronau, near Guhrau, as far as Polnisch- 
Wartenberg and Trebnitz ; the coal becoming more solid and in every way 
better as the seams diverge to the south-east, where it is frequently trans- 
formed into black pitch-coal (Pechkohle). It attains a thickness of 13 to 
27 feet between Wersingave and Stroppin, and from Winzig to Glogau is 
from 5 to 10 feet thick. An entirely separate deposit should be mentioned | 
near Dembiohammer, between Malapane and Oppeln, which was considered 
for along time to be true coal. Seventy miles from the brown coal at Obornik 
~ on the Warthe, other deposits appear below the confluence of the Vistula 
and the Brahe, from the Fordon in Bromberg to Costelletz in Schwetz. 

Brown-coal deposits on the east bank of the Vistula occur at Braunsberg 
(in Kénigsberg), and near Warniken and Rauschen on the Baltic coast. 

In the southern group of measures many traces of brown coal have been 
followed up by diligent investigations along the southern edges of the Sua- 
bian and Franconian Jura, from Lake Constance to the Danube, and thence 
on its left bank as far as the so-called Bavarian forest in the beds of mo- 
lasse. In the Grand Duchy of Baden good brown coal was discovered, but 
too thin to work. In Wiirtemberg also seams have been met with, but 
unworkable, éxcept one of dysodile, 4 feet thick, near Randeck (in Kirch- 
heim), which is used for the manufacture of photogene and paraffin. On 
the eastern edge of these deposits, in the Bavarian territory, important 
basins are formed, one near Sauforst, where the seam has a thickness of 
from 10 to 30 feet, yielding chiefly ligneous coal. Along the northern 
slope of the ridge of mountains in front of the Alps, in Upper Bavaria, 
brown-coal seams are everywhere met with, mostly of black pitch-coal, 
which cannot be coked, but which possesses the best qualities for puddling 
and reheating iron, and for domestic purposes. In the western part of 
this basin thirty seams are known on the southern slope of the Peissenberg, 
six of which are worked and have a total thickness of about nine feet. On 
the Pensberg forty-six seams are known, fifteen of which are workable. 
In the district of Auer one seam is worked, and one also at Eschelbach, 
in the district of Schongau. Ata greater distance from the mountains 
three very thin seams are known at Irrsee, in the district of Kaufbeuren. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


Human Rematns unper Prat.—In the ‘ Quarterly Geological Jour- 
nal,’ vol. ix. 1853, p.32, Mr. Gavey, F.G.S., stated that human remains had 
been found in blue clay, underlying peat and sand, at a depth of 9 feet 
6 inches from the surface, in a railway cutting at Mickleton, in Gloucester- 
shire. The geological evidences are detailed in Mr. Gavey’s paper at great 
length. _The late Professor Baden Powell, F.R.S., inserted a note on the 
subject in his ‘ Essays on the Philosophy of Creation,’ Svo, London, 1855, 
p- 501, in which he states, “ Considermg the very long series of phy- 
sical events which thus must have occurred since.the human remains were _ 
embedded, it becomes an important inquiry to endeavour to settle the pro- — 


REVIEW. 397 


bable relation of these various changes to any known epochs of geological 
action.” This statement made by Baden Powell, although apparently 
borne out by the geological evidence, was impugned by A. Thomson, Esq., 
of Banchory, in the ‘ Kdinburgh New Philosophical Journal,’ vol. ii. 1856, 
p. 247. No satisfactory account of the skeleton has however been given. 
“The skull was small, but beautifully formed, having the organ of vencra- 
tion (1) well developed,” according to the observations made by Mr. Cooksey, 
surgeon, of Chipping Campden. The following measurements are given:— 
From posterior edge of foramen magnum to nasal bones, 15,3; in.; from one 
meatus auditorius to the other, over the crown, 13,8; in.; horizontal peri- 
phery, 204; in. ; 

It would be very interesting to have further evidence respecting this 
discovery ; and it is to be hoped that the skull may be placed in the hands 
of some practical ethnologist or cranioscopist. If it should offer any 
points of similarity to the “ river-bed” skulls, another link in the chain of 
evidence would be procured. 


REVIEW. 


Esquisse une Description Physique et Géologique de l Arrondissement de 
Montbéliard. Par Dr. Ch. Contejean. Leipzig: Rothschild, 1862. 


The physical and geological description of a district, although it may not 
have for general readers so great an interest as works of a more extended 
and diversified kind, forms nevertheless one of the many solid blocks of 
which the noble building of geological science is constituted. It is with 
the greatest pleasure we see these important repertories of valuable details 
multiplied day by day. Usually they are the work of some devoted indi- 
vidual who has worked, con amore, in the place of his birth, or of his daily 
labours, and often they are printed at the expense of his private purse. 
Often some publisher is found to take up some of this class of books as a 
business transaction, and such cases are gratifying, for it shows a great 
and wide-spread, if nut indeed a public, interest in our science. 

The work before us was begun at the solicitation of the Society of Emu- 
lation of Montbélard, who desired to furnish their contingent to the 
scientific description of France demanded of the French learned societies 
by the Ministerial circular of the 1st of June, 1860. M. Contejean is the 
préparateur of the Museum of Natural History, of Paris, and, at the dis- 
tance of a hundred leagues away, it did not seem the easiest task to write 
the geology of a district; but he yielded to the wishes of his colleagues, 
feeling that his many botanical and geological explorations of his native 
soil, so fresh in his memory, would enable him to give a sketch of all the es- 
sential details. The book thus produced is divided into four subjects :—L. 
The physical deseription of the arrondissement—its situation, its elevated 
regions, mountains, rivers, lakes, marshes, and peat-bogs. II. A geolo- 
gical description, comprising notices of the Triassic, Jurassic, Neocomian, 
Cretaceous, Siderolithic, Molasse, Tertiary, and modern deposits. III. 
The Orography of the district. IV. General considerations. It is illus- 
trated with a map and two plates of very instructive sections. The divi- 
sions and subdivisions of the various formations are given with concise- 
ness, but every necessary detail. It may be useful to English geologists 
to epitomize these very briefly for the sake of comparison with our English 


398 THE GEOLOGIST. 


beds, leaving those who desire fuller information to obtain it from the 
book itself, which offers an admirable model for the production of similar 
works in our own country. Such works on local geology are too few 
with us, and are generally too poor, both in ability and information, 
to merit regard; it is most commendable therefore to promote the desire 
for this class of productions on every occasion that presents itself, and a 
better model for a simple geologica! sketch could not be taken than the one 
before us. 

The arrondissement of Montbéliard is situated at the extreme frontier 
of France, near the Vosges, in a depression which separates those moun- 
tains from the northern Jura. It consists almost entirely of the Jurassic 
formation ; but outcrops of the Triassic and masses of other rocks are how- 
ever met with. 

The Trias is divided into Grés bigarré (variegated sandstone), Calcaire 
conchylien (Muschelkalk), and Marnes irisées (Keuper). 

The Jurassic formation offers eight subdivisions—the Lower, Middle, 
and Upper Lias, the Inferior and Great Oolites, and the Oxford, Coralline, 
and Kimmeridge series. The base of the Lower Lias is a yellowish-white 
quartzose sandstone, four to five metres thick, full of casts of Cardinia 
and other bivalves, and corresponding to the Grés d’Hettanges. Over this 
follows the dark grey Calcaire a Gryphées arquées, attaining the thickness 
of ten to twelve metres. The Middle Lias presents, at its base, grey or 
blue marls and dark-coloured, marly, fragile limestones, shghtly schistose ; 
these are the Marnes a Gryphaea cymbium. The second group is formed of 
blue limestone, disposed in nodules in regular beds, alternating with 
narrow beds of marl—Calcaire a Belemnites. The third group, the Marnes 
a Ammonites margaritatus, consist of dark grey shaly marls. The Marnes 
a Plicatules, the fourth and last group of the Middle Lias, alternate with 
marly limestones. They are always micaceous and sometimes sandy. The 
thickness of the whole division is about thirty metres. ‘The Upper Lias is 
divided into three groups, the Schistes bitumineux, the Marnes a Trochus, 
and the Grés supraliasique. The first consists of very friable, argillaceous 
schists, highly impregnated with bitumen; the second are firm grey or 
whitish marls; and the last is formed of nodules and fine layers of very 
friable sandstone, very micaceous, alternating with sandy clays charged with 
mica, and known as the Marnes micacées. The thickness of the division 
is from twenty to thirty metres. The principal fossils in the upper beds— 
Ammonites insignis, Schubl.; A. primordalis, Schl.; A. bifrons, Brug. ; 
Trochus duplicatus, Sow.; Leda rostralis, Lam. sp.; Nucula Hammerii, 
Defr.; Astarte Voltzii, Hoen. The Inferior Oolite commences with red- 
dish or yellow limestones, enclosing regularly stratified beds of hydroxide 
of iron, the Oolithe ferrugineuse. Above this is the Calcaires a Entroques 
(entrochital imestone). Then, again, the Calcaires & Polypiers, enclosing 
siliceous nodules. The thickness of this group, over forty metres in the 
Jurassic chains, is considerably reduced at the northern extremity of the 
arrondissement. The Oolitic iron is an excellent mineral, and supplies a great 
many of the factories of Franche-Comté, There are important mines in it 
worked by the Compagnie des Forges from Audincourt to Dampjoux, near 
the mouth of the Barbéche. The Entrochal limestone furnishes a building 
stone of very excellent quality, which is almost exclusively employed at 
Besangon by the military engineers. The Great Oolite presents three 
divisions constant in the Jura, but elsewhere artificial, and more distinct 
in their mineral character than by their faunas. These are the Marnes & 
Ostrea acuminata (Marnes vésulennes of Marcou); the Great Oolite, 
properly so called, and the Dalle nacrée. The first is a blue marl, made 


REVIEW. 399 


up as usual of those little oysters from which it takes its name, and is 
sometimes twenty metres thick. The Great Oolite is a very massive lime- 
stone, the upper part of which has been, rightly or wrongly, considered 
by some Continental geologists as representing our Forest Marble. ‘The 
Dalle Nacrée (Nacreous Marble) is a small limestone series enclosing at 
its base subordinate beds of clay. The principal fossils of the Dalle 
WNacrée are Ammonites macrocephalus, Schl.; Am. sub-backeria, D’Orb. ; 
Pholadomya buccardium, Ag.; P. Vezelayi, Laj.; Lyonsia peregrina, 
‘Phill., sp.; Lavignon mactroides, D’Orb.; Gervillia acuta, Sow.; Ostrea 
acuminata, Sow.; O. costata, Sow.; Rhynchonella concinna, Sow., sp. ; 
R. Lieteni, D’Orb.; Terebratula digona, Sow. In the Ktage Oxfordien, 
M. Contejean includes the Callovian and Oxfordian Etages of D’Orbigny, 
and consequently in the Montbéliard region he admits in that group the 
Fer Sous-Oxfordien (Callovian), the Marnes Oxfordicnnes (Oxfordian), 
and the Caleaires a Spherites (Argovian). 

His tage Corallien is the Etage Corallien of D’Orbigny, less the Cal- 
caires & Astartes. It begins with the Argilles a Chailles ; to these suc- 
ceed the Caleaires Coralliens proper, which in the Haut-Jura exceed a 
hundred metres in thickness, and it is terminated by the Coralline Oolite 
(Oolithe Corallienne). The Etage Kimméridien is made also by M. Conte- 
jean to include the Etages Kimméridien and Portlandien of D’Orbigny, and 
it is this group which most especially occupies the general surface of the 
Montbéliard arrondissement. The four divisions of this étage are the 
Astartien, Ptérocerien, Virgulien, and Nérinéen. 

Between the Portland dolomite and the lowest Neocomian beds there are 
intercalated, in many localities, beds which have exercised the wits of many 
eeologists, and have given rise to much controversy. These are the Argiles 
des Villiers, a smali freshwater formation, considered by some to belong to 
the Jurassic period, corresponding to the Purbeck beds, and by others as 
representing the Weald Clay ; whilst others attach them to the Cretaceous 
Formation. The author expresses no opinion on this point, but points out 
the occurrence of these clays at Villiers-le-Lac, near Morteau, and as oc- 
curring also generally at the base of the Neocomian deposits in the canton 
of Russey, in very variable thickness, but on the average about 10 metres. 
Their colour is dark grey, almost black. The fossils are rare and badly 
preserved. M. Lory has noted Physa Bristovii, Forbes (P. Wealdiana, 
Coq.), Planorbis Lorii, Coq., Corbula alata, Sow., and undetermined spe- 
cies of Paludina, Lymneus, and Cyclas. 

The Cretaceous rocks are represented by Neocomian limestones, sur- 
mounted by bands of limonite-iron—the Valenginian group; or as M. 
Contejean prefers to call them, the Caleaire a Limonite, and the Marnes de 
@ Hauterive and the Calcaires de Neuchatel. The Caleaire a Chama (Ne- 
gonien, D’Orb.) does not exist in the arrondissement, nor are any of the 
Upper Cretaceous beds to be met with. 

The Terrain Sidérolithique is another small formation which has ocea- 
sioned discussion as to its origin, and the place it ought to occupy in the 
geological series. It consists of clays, sands, and grains of iron, confusedly 
heaped in the fissures and open depressions of all the Jurassic beds. The 
iron is worked in numerous places, and some of the mines are very im- 
portant. 

The Molasse extends from the north-east of Montbéliard over the terri- 
tories of Sochaux, Exincourt, Etupes, Brognard, Dambenois, and Allan- 
joie. Isolated by erosions, it fogyms low and rounded hills. At Montaineau 
the Molasse begins with strong beds of conglomerates of rounded pebbles 
belonging to the Jurassic beds, and often preserving their fossils. ‘These 


400 THE GEOLOGIST. 


pebbles agglutinated by a calcareous sandy cement, penetrated by 
grains of iron from the “ terrain sidérolithique,” are so closely packed 
that the prominences of some make indentations on others, the cavities 
corresponding as when a hard substance is pressed into a softer. This 
phenomenon has often excited attention, both in this locality and else- 
where, and has recently been receiving the careful and acute attention of 
Mr. Sorby, from whom we are likely to receive shortly a very interest- 
ing explanation of its cause and the manner of action. Above these mas- 
sive conglomerates, beds of ‘‘ pudding-stones,”’ alternating with sands and 
clay, occur; and finally, in the upper part, is homogeneous sandstone, or, 
properly called, Molasse. The fossils are rare and badly preserved. In 
the upper sandstone are impressions of mytilus, cardium,and some fragments 
of oysters, and bones of the sea-cow or lamantin. Beds of freshwater lime- 
stone, highly charged with silex, occur at Dampierre, Chatenois, and other 
places, and contain snails, lymneas, paludinas, ete. At Chatenois these 
beds are more than 8 metres thick. The relationship of these freshwater 
deposits with the marine beds of the Molasse is very difficult to make out. 

The hills and plateaux of the lower regions are covered over the greater 
part of their surface by patches of diluvium, which augment in thickness 
towards the plain of Alsace. To the south, these deposits invade the pla- 
teaux to the height of 450 metres. The diluvium consists of sands, pebbles, 
and clays confusedly mixed, without assortment or of visible stratification. 
The sands and pebbles are of Vosgian or Hercynian origin, and are of 
crystalline schists, granites, syenites, quartzites, porphyries, and ancient 
sedimentary rocks reduced to fragments varying from a grain to the size 
of the head. As the Vosges are approached these débris become more 
numerous and larger. The bones, and particularly the teeth, of Hlephas 
primigenius and Rhinoceros tichorinus, characterize these deposits. 

There are within the arrondissement numerous caverns and osseous 
breccias. The best known are those of Vaucluse, Mancenans, and St. 
Julien ; the latter 200 metres above the bed of the Dessoubre, and the 
entrance to which is absolutely inaccessible without a ladder. Up to the 
present time no human remains have been found in any of these caverns. 
The ordinary mammalia are bear, hyena, cave-lion, several kinds of deer 
and ox, some rodents and insectivora. Some bones of birds have also been 
found. In the escarpments of the Chateau de Chatillon, near St. Hippo- 
lyte, fissures exist partly filled with osseous breccia, amongst the frag- 
ments in which M. Duvernoy has recognized bones of the cave-bear. 

Erratic blocks are also very frequent, scattered over the heights and 
ridges of La Haute-Montagne. These are of crystalline schists, protogene, 
black-limestone, and other rocks coming from the Alps of Monte Rosa. 

The turf-bogs are formed almost entirely of mosses of the genus Sphag- 
num. The gravel-beds contain often blocks of considerable size, and the 
Bones and teeth of beaver, small rodents, and insectivora, which have long 
since been extinct in the district. The superficial deposits often present 
remains of vegetables and minerals such as now exist, as also products of 
human industry. 

M. Contejean’s book consists of ninety-two pages, and the brief mkling 
we have given our readers of the contents cf a few is an earnest of the 
valuable and interesting matter contained in that still larger proportion 
which space prevents us from noticing at all. 


THE GEOLOGIST. — 


NOVEMBER 1862. 


THE “DRAGON-TREE” OF THE KENTISH RAG. 


Mr. Brystep, in his ‘ Notes on the Geology of Maidstone’ (p. 336) 
has referred to certain vegetable remains from the Kentish rag-beds 
of his quarry, under the title of Dracena Benstedii ; and under this 
name the specimen stands recorded in Professor Morris’s Catalogue. 
The entry there is “ Dracena (Linn.) Benstedii, Konig, Mus. Brit., 
LL. G.S., Maidstone,” but the name of the class is not given, whether by 
omission or from some special reason we are not aware. The recent 
Dracene are referred by botanists to the Liliaceew, and the best- 
known species is that which supplies the fine pigment used by house- 
graimers, and commonly known as “ Dragon’s blood.” 

The Dragon-trees form a most extraordinary and celebrated genus 
of monocotyledonous vegetables. They belong to the Asparagus 
family; and with the appearance and interior organization of the 
Palms, they are said to approach them still nearer in their fructifi- 
cation. 

All the kinds are said to delight in arid soils, and to flourish on 
the shores by the sea, ranging from that level to eight hundred or a 
thousand yards on the mountains. 

Twenty to twenty-five species are recorded as natural to inter- 
tropical regions—India, China, the islands of the Pacific, Cape of 
Good Hope, and the coast and islands of South Africa. One only 
exists in the northern part of the American continent, in the far 
north of Canada, or on the borders of the icy regions of Hudson 
Bay. 

VOL. V. 3F 


4.02 THE GEOLOGIST. 


There appear to be, as far as we are aware, no published sections 
of their structure, nor any particularly valuable descriptions for the 
geologist. Some monographs do exist of somewhat ancient date, 
namely, Crantz, ‘De Duabus Draconis Arboribus Botanicorum,’ 4to, 
Vienna, 1768; Berens, ‘De Dracone Arbore Clusui,’ 4to, Gottingen, 
1770; Vandelli, ‘De Arbore Draconis seu Dracena,’ 8vo, Olisipone, 
1768; and Thunberg, ‘ Dissertatio de Draceena,’ 4to, Upsala, 1808. 
These are all the special works which have come under our direct 
notice. Various accounts, however, are scattered through various 
books of travel and of expeditions; and especially any one who wishes 
to work out the subject will find accounts and admirable photographs 
of the great dragon-tree of Orotava, and many others, in Professor C. 
Piazzi Smyth’s ‘Teneriffe.’ This Orotava-tree is reputed to be 
6000 years of age. 


«Poor old tree, whose trunk was hollow when Alonzo del Lugo and his 
conquistadores in 1493 established the Spanish authority here, and turned 
the bark into a chapel for holy mass after it had served Druidical pur- 
poses amongst the Guanche tribes for ages. How frail is it now! A storm 
wrenched off an arm; and more recently certain Goths hacked an immense 
piece out of the thin wall of hollow trunk for the Museum of Botany at 
Kew. ... Sixty feet high above the ground at its southern fork ; forty- 
eight feet and a half in circumference at that level, 35°6 at 6 feet above, 
and 23°8 at 14°5 feet above, or the place where the branches spring out 
from the rapidly narrowing conical trunk—this Dracena cannot compare 
with the real monarchs of the forest for size. And we must remember that 
it is no proper tree with woody substance ; it is merely a vegetable ; an aspa- 
ragus stalk, with a remarkable power of vitality and an equally eminent 
slowness of growth: it is this last, indeed, not its size, which has gained 
it the credit of being the oldest tree in the world. Let us take note of 
the chief characteristics. First, the immense uprearing of long, naked, 
root-like branches, and the pyramidal outline of the trunk. The leafage 
makes no very sensible appearance; there is the typical tuft at the end of 
each branch, or rather stem; but the miniature palm-trees have been grow- 
ing for ages without bifurcation, extending only in length, nothing in 
breadth. At the point of junction of two or more a thickening of the lower 
branch begins, and occasionally may be seen one or two withered radicles 
hanging loose; for they have failed to enter the bark, and work their way 
down to the ground. So many of them however have done this, that 
while the simple stems are smooth or marked only by shallow, transverse 
indentations of footstalks of past leaves, the compound stems are deeply 
corrugated longitudinally, and the trunk more markedly still, with an ey1- 
dent tendency in every wrinkle to divide continually as it descends. When 
once a stem has branched its life seems to have departed, being replaced 
by the lives of the several young trees of its kind left growing on its sum- 
mit, and whose roots, entering the bark, and encasing the stem on every 
side, conceal its slowly withering corpse from the light of day. Ages pass 
by ; the young trees after flourishing die in their turn, each producing 
two or more new ones mounted on their summits; . . . the inosculating 
roots, which had decorously concealed the death of their parent stem, 


MACKIE—““ DRAGON-TREE”’ OF THE KENTISH RAG. 403 


feeling the requirements of the growing family above, expand their circle 
of support below; the trunk that had been cylindrical becomes a broad- 
based cone. An opening is made on one side. We look in and find a 
mere hollow. In the centre of that void there stood the original tree; it 
is gone now, as completely as any of the early progenitors of annuals grow- 
ing in our gardens. Hence some explanation of the hollow interior of the 
great Dragon-tree. It is a physiological necessity.” 

As the Maidstone specimen in the British Museum has never 
been published, we give a representation of the most characteristic 
part in Plate XXII. Mr. Carruthers, of the Botanical Department 
of the British Museum, is disposed to think that it is the bifurcation 
of two branches. The specimen is no more than the cast in Kentish 
ragstone of the original mould of the exterior in that stratum, and 
is valuable culy as showing those ribbings and small and peculiar pit- 
tings on the surface which accord with the like but fainter ribbings and 
pittings on the surface of the recent Dracena draco. The fragment 
figured is one-third natural size, and one of several pieces, of which 
another measures 11 inches in length by 44 in diameter; a third, 16 
inches by about the same thickness. In these, portions apparently of 
cavernous wood are found within the exterior rim of bark, and at 
places seem to show structure. The opportunity has not yet been 
afforded me of examining this structure minutely, but I hope Mr. 
Henry Woodward will accede to my wish, that a section of the speci- 
men sbould be made, and that he will furnish us with some account 
of its peculiarities. I draw attention to this specimen, for all the 
pieces are parts of the same branch, not with any wish or purpose of 
disputing its right to its generic name,—notwithstanding that rests on 
those very fragile grounds, mere external resemblance,—but because 
at present it seems to stand alone, as representing the Liliacez in the 
Secondary period, and we have no record of this class that I remem- 
ber in any of our Tertiary deposits. 

It might be well however to look to the -Pandanacee, or screw- 
pines, before even, on the evidence before us, it is accepted as certain 
that this Greensand fossil rightly belongs to Dracena. The recent 
Pandanus amaryllifolius, Roxb., the P. edoratissimus of Eastern 


Asia, and an undescribed species collected by Mr. Robert Brown, 


have all, more or less, somewhat similar but perhaps harsher and 
coarser ribbings and pittings ; and it should not be forgotten, that from 
the Inferior Oolite of Charnworth in Dorsetshire we have the Podo- 
earya Bucklandi referred to the Pandanese in Morris’s catalogue, 
but placed by Professor Phillips, in his ‘ Manual,’ with the Cycadee. 
There is another reason for looking to this class, namely, the conical 


4.04: THE GEOLOGIST. 


_ fruits occasionally met in the Lower Greensand beds, and which, 
if they belong to either class, are more like Pandanaceous fruits 


than Liliaceous. 
As I have found fragments of similar cavernous wood in the 


Greensand of Folkestone, it is probable many more specimens may 
be by diligence obtained; and my impression is, that a large tree 
I once saw split out like a picture on the surface of an enormous 
block of ragstone in Mr. Bensted’s quarry was a nearly perfect 
specimen of the Dracena Benstedit, or whatever other genus this 
specimen may be proved to belong to. : 

We have before drawn passing attention to some of the plants of 
the British cretaceous rocks, and we wish again to do so now. It is 
an unworked mine full of promise, and every labourer in it will meet 


reward. 


ON THE RESTORATION OF PTERASPIS. 


By THE Rev. Huew Mircuerr, M.A. 


In the year 1860, when engaged in drawing 
up a list of the fossils known to occur in the 
\ Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, we had 
\ occasion to remark that, with the exception 
of the Pteraspis, we had found in our northern 
rocks the various fossils of the equivalent 
beds in England, and many others besides, 
indicating an extensive piscine fauna in that 
epoch of geological history. We have now 
to remove that exception, for Pteraspis does 
occur with us.. Some very fine specimens 
have recently been found in our Scottish 
rocks, and from their examination we are not 
only able to discern that fragments which 
have been many years in our possession, and 
which we could not refer to any known fossil, 
belong to that paleozoic fish, but we are also 
encouraged to attempt the restoration of the 
remarkable buckler, composed of solid bone, 
in which this ancient denizen of the deep was 
encased. 

Figure 1. In the construction of this dia- 
gram three fossil specimens have been em- 
ployed. These specimens are similar in their 
proportions and in the method of their pre- 


PLATE XXII. 


Pe 
ff 

(f ff i 

| Hi 


biti! 
AY" 
an 
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SA 
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Sgaee 


Oo ae 


Se 
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i i g 

1 ae 
i i 


WAY < 
\ 


AN ie \ < 
wis 
ie 
uns 


\" 


DRACANA BENSTEDII, Konig. 


From a Specimen in the British Museum. presented by Mr. Bensted 


S. J. Mackie, del. 


MITCHELL—ON THE RESTORATION OF PTERASPTS. 4.05 


servation, and their exact measurements have been followed in the 
figure. The first specimen, used for this diagram, exhibits very 
beautifully the form of the shield with the terminal horns, and the 
distinct eye-sockets. The eyes are placed on the margin of the shield, 
and their impression is also seen on a cast in the stone of this spe- 
cimen. The second specimen 
is the prolonged central ter- 
mination of the shield, which 
has been broken off at the 
ridge which terminates on 
either side in the horns. The 
third specimen shows the junc- 
tion of this central prolonga- 
tion with the shield. All the 
three specimens have a high 
central ridge, and still retain 
something of the graceful out- 
line of the living form. As 
preserved in the stone these 
specimens show only the na- 
creous layer, the other com- 
ponent layers of the bone of 
the Pteraspis having perished 
in their case. 

Figure 2.. Two specimens 
have been employed for the 
construction of this diagram, 
the one a piece of solid bone, 
and the other a cast in the 
stone of the under surface of 
the dorsal shield. They are 
apparently the relics of indi- 
viduals of the same species and 
even size; and we have again 
followed their exact measure- 
ments in the figure. The spe- 
cimen of solid bone exhibits Fie. 2 

1. We 

the externalaspect and general a 

outline of the shield, and is especially valuable as showing the form 
and position of the horns of the shield. It will be observed that 
these are not the prolonged cusps of the Cephalaspis, or at least 
of the Cephalaspis Lyellii. The cast shows the marks of the eye- 
sockets, and exhibits traces of the central ridge of the shield. The 
ridge, however, is a low one in comparison of that in Figure 1; 
and we have hitherto failed to discover the central prolongation or 
termination of this larger or adult form. 

Figure 8. This must be understood to be very conjectural; and 
although three of the plates are copied exactly as they occur in the 
stone, their arrangement and their function must be considered so far 


406 THE GEOLOGIST. 


a guess. We regard the whole as forming an abdominal plate, com- 
posed of different pieces, joined by sutures, and which covered the un- 
der side of the head and, it may be, part of the body of the Pteraspis. 
The pieces we possess are numbered in the diagram 1, 2, 3, and the 
= others have not occurred to us. 

vas NS In 1 we cannot discover any 

ye | e trace of the eye-socket, which, 

| 


had this been the anterior por- — 
< tion of a dorsal plate, ought to 
have been displayed; but in 2 
there is a round orifice, to which 
/ J a sucking apparatus might have 
| been well attached. If this in- 
| | terpretation be correct, and be 
| a | confirmed by further evidence, 
\ ae then, at length, we have reached 
| \ the method in which the Pter- 
aspis and its kindred Cephalas- 
pis sought and received their 
food in the waters, The sepa- 
rate plates seem to be bone, 
\ composed like that of the ce- 
phalic buckler, and were ap- 
parently joined together by 
deep sutures. The bone cover- 
ing the upper surface of the 
head presented a solid mass to 
any opposing object; but that 
covering the under surface, as 
less exposed, was formed of dif- 
ferent pieces, and thus flexible 
wherewithal. And we have ob- 
served that Plate 1 covers Plate 
2 by a deep marginal socket ; 
a so that the plate to which a 
Ta sucker might be attached could 

not be torn from its place without the resistance of the other. 


h 
| 
| 2 
3 
| 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Origin of Flint Veins in Chalk. - 


Drar Str,—A short time since a paper appeared in your publication 
reviewing the various theories concerning the origin of the chalk flints. 
No notice was then taken of a theory which, to my mind, explains the 
origin of flint better than any of those theories which have as yet been 


CORRESPONDENCE. 4.07 


advanced. Before explaining this theory I will allude to a phenomenon 
which is apparent in nearly every large exposure of flint-bearing chalk. 
Seams of flint, often not more than an inch in thickness (sometimes much less), 
may be seen in the chalk, running at almost right angles to the lines of strati- 
jication. From these seams it is possible to detach slabs some feet in super- 
ficial area, but only an inch or so in thickness. Now, I ask any person 
who has the slightest knowledge of the nature of deposition and stratifica- 
tion, whether such a mass as I have described could have been formed at 
the bottom of the sea round a nucleus of any description, and then have 
been deposited with the chalk in such a position, viz. at a considerable 
angle to the lines of stratification. I think that the answer will be in the 
negative, and that we must have some other theory than that held by Dr. 
Bowerbank to account for the presence of, at any rate, such masses as 
these. You have probably noticed the seams, to which I allude, yourself, 
as they are abundant everywhere along the south-western coast of Hngland. 
My atiention was first drawn to them in the cliffs between Brighton and 
Rottingdean, where many and striking examples may be seen. The only 
theory which can explain these occurrences, and which is sound as far as I 
can see in other respects, was held, I believe, by the late Professor Henslow, 
who considered that the chalk flints had been formed after the deposition 
of the calcareous stratum in which they are found, during its elevation 
from the sea, by the percolation and concentration of water, highly charged 
with silica, into cavities left by the decomposition of animal and vegetable 
matters which had been enclosed. In —————-~—_______--_____. 
the process of drying, fissures would na- = 
turally form in the chalk, in which the 
siliceous water could accumulate and == 
leave its deposit of flint, in the same 
manner as it had accumulated and formed = 
“nodular” masses in the cavities left by | 

the decomposition of sponges, echino- ——— 
derms, mollusks, ete. I think it is also probable that the gases Coane 
by the decomposition of these organic bodies would enlarge. the cavities 
formed in the yielding chalk ; and might not some chemical affinity or 
exchange also have assisted in the elimination of the siliceous particles 
from the water ? 

I should be glad to hear from yourself or correspondents, either facts 
which will tend to support this theory, or some other hypothesis which 
will better explain the occurrence of these continuous seams of flint. I 
enclose you a sketch of the cliff with flint seams, and remain, 

Yours, ete., 

September 8th, 1861. SILEX. 


The Red Sandstone Blocks of Dunmanway. 


Str,—The beautiful representation of the Old Red Sandstone block of 
Dunmanway, county Cork (given at page 248, ‘ Geologist’ for July) gives 
rise to the following suggestions :— 


Dunmanway’s Old Red Sandstone blocks stand forth as rocks 
Of water-markings ; not rubs and jolts of ice-blocks ; 
Water went round to mark them. 


408 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The ripple-marks left by undulating waters 
On limestones in Lake Killarney, and other quarters, 
May still be seen im progress. 
Yours faithfully, A SuBscRIBER. 

6th August, 1862. 

[If our correspondent is not pleased with his communication being set up by our com- 
positor as a poetical effusion, he has no one to blame but himself; for, not sending us, 
in confidence, his name and address, we could neither send him a proof nor ask his 
instructions. We are continually annoyed by this reprehensible conduct, and many 
things worth printing are often, for this reason, consigned to our waste-paper basket. 
The post-mark on this communication is Ryde, but we should only give the Dead Letter 
officers trouble if we posted a letter “To Subseriber”’ there. It would bea worse ad- 
dress than the memorable “ John Smith, England.”—Ep. Geot. | 


The Kirkdale Cavern. 


Srr,—In the September number of ‘ Macmillan’s Magazine’ there is an 
article by Mr. John Taylor, concerning this place, upon which, as I take 
it to be a very important one (thus greatly differing from the majority of 
geological papers, which are combinations of the most obvious facts and the 
most unobvious speculations), I am desirous of making a few observations. 
That it presents an agreeable contrast to the views of some of ‘our best 
authorities” in geology, no candid person can but admit; but, at the same 
time, I look upon it as perhaps the commencement of new inquiries, which 
probably will effect the demolition of similar irrational and far-fetched ex- 
planations. 

That any individual could consider the one in question, and yet main- 
tain the doctrine of Buckland, could, I think, only be accounted for on the 
ground of faith in this distinguished geologist,—the facts alluded to by 
Mr. Taylor being absolutely crucial as regards the conclusion drawn from 
them. We have here an example of an apparently geological phenomenon 
which is really an historical one, and of the utility which the knowledge 
of ancient customs is in the explanation of physical phenomena. In the 
present case, without this knowledge the explanation would have been only 
a speculation; but as the explanatory circumstance is known to have been 
a fact, and it is not possible otherwise to account for the phenomenon, there 
is as much certainty as can be obtained concerning any unseen phenomena. 
In this sense the conclusion is warranted, or crucial, from the facts brought 
forward. I have here, of course, presumed that the alleged facts are such, 
concerning which, as far as I can understand, no discussion can be raised. 

J. ALEXANDER Davies. 


[We are sorry to read the opinion formed by our correspondent of the antiquated, 
absurd, and ignorant article in ‘ Maemillan’s Magazine.? Want of space prevents com- 
ments on our part wpon it in the present-number, but we shall refer to the subject again. 
Two excellent articles in the ‘London Review’ may, in the interim, be perused with ad- 
vantage by Mr. Davies and those who concur in his appreciation of Mr. Taylor’s un- 
tenable article. | 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 


Iraty.—The Natural History Museum of the Royal University of Pisa 
exhibits the following plaster and wax models of fossils :— Mastodon Aver- 
nensis (jaws and separate teeth); Hlephas meridionalis (jaws, part of 
upper jaw, teeth); Hippopotamus major (part of jaw, teeth); Rhinoceros 
Etruscus (skull, part of jaw, part of upper jaw) ; Lutra Campani (almost 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN TilE GREAT EXIIBITION. 409 


entire skull); Amphicyon Laurinense (part of jaw); Sus charoides (two 
portions of jaw); and several other interesting fossils are exhibited in the 
[talian department. 

The following tables of the number, produce, and working staffs of the 
Austrian coal-mines, eliminated from the minute details given by the 
Austrian Geological Survey, will be viewed with some interest, not only 
in respect to the various manufactures which of late years have been 
carried on at the expense of coal proper, but in respect also to the total 
quantity raised in comparison with the annual enormous yield of our own 
eoal-fields. 

Tt would have been a most interesting thing to have worked out minutely 
the comparative values of the various kinds of bituminous minerals in 
respect to manufactures ; but the absence of any official or reliable infor- 
mation renders sucha task very difficult, while the carelessness of labelling 
of some exhibitors, and, we almost fear, the intentional obscurities of the 
specimens of others, leave so many chances of error to any writer attempt- 
ing to deal with the Exhibition samples of this class as would make the 
boldest and most anxious votaries of science hesitate to go fully into the sub- 
ject. The comparative values of bituminous shales and coals proper in the 
actual commercial manufacture of paraffine, the origin of rock-oil, whether 
the latter is of the same age as the beds which contain it, or whether such 
beds from a peculiar basin-like condition are only mere receptacles of a 
product of very various dates of formation, are all interesting questions. 
The effect of former litigations on the first very important topic is still 
most bitterly felt in the retardation and cbscuring of a subject of real 
scientific and commercial importance; while the still common careless or 
wilful misuse of the term “ coal ’’—a secondary consequence also of that 
baneful influence—disfigures the writings and arguments of some of our 
eminent geologists, and leads to the utmost confusion in the public as to 
the real nature of the minerals which are truly serviceable for that and 
various other manufactures. The true type of coal is undoubtedly “* New- 
castle coal :” the so-called cannel “ coals,” the Wemyss “ coal,” the Wigan 
*‘ coal,” and Boghead “ coal” are simply misnomers ; and we cannot wonder 
that parties interested in the manufacture of paraffine should pass strong 
comments when they see samples of one thing exhibited under the name 
of another, as Mr. Campbell has done in the last number of the ‘ Mining 
Journal,’ on the sample exhibited by Mr. James Young, of Bathgate. And 
certainly with respect to that gentleman’s specimen of “‘ Boghead Coal,’-— 
another name only for the memorable ‘‘Torbane Hill Mineral,” —the Boghead 
“coal” being the Torbane Hill Mineral dug from the portion of that shale- 
field leased by Mr. Gillespie to the Messrs. Russell of litigation notoriety,— 
it does indeed bear no resemblance to that substance, of which some hundred- 
weights of specimens have passed through our hands as the substance from 
which the Bathgate parafline was made. In the foreign courts the same ob- 
seure use of the term “ coal” isso common, that, combined with the absence 
of any proofs that the samples exhibited are actwally samples of the articles 
used in the manufactures to which they are assumed to relate, although really 
anxious to view this important topic in a purely scientific light, as to the 
nature of the origin of the various commercial bituminous products, we 
reserve, at least for the present, our notes on the subject, to seek for the 
fullest information from every reliable quarter—not with any view, and still 
less any wish, to enter into or bring up again a controversy the embers 
of which it is evident are still burning, but from the desire which a man of 
science naturally feels to investigate an unresolved problem, and to turn 
the knowledge he gets to the advantage or instruction of his*race. 

Vou. Vv. Oo G 


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414 


PARTICULARS 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


OF THE STRATA SUNK THROUGH AT HIGH PARK 


COLLIERY, IN PARISH OF GREATLEY, IN THE COUNTY OF NOT- 
TINGHAM, ON THE ESTATE OF VISCOUNTESS PALMERSTON. 


| Thickness 


No. of Strata. 


of Name of Strata. 


ara 


diam. within brickwork. 
2 0 O| Raised pit top. 


Coal and Smut. 

Light clunch. Nov.2, 1854, 
wedging and tubbingcorb. 
wood 16 x 10 in., stopped 
back water. 


1|0 2 5] Yellow clay. 
ON eta sO 9s Bluey bind: 
3/2 0 4| Ditto andironstone. (First 
water.) 
4|0 1. 8| Black bind. 
510 1 0} Darkelunchwith ironstone. 
6|0 0 10} Black shale. (Water.) 
7\1 1 4] White clunch. 
810 O 2| Coal. (Water.) 
9|0 O 11} Dark clunch. 
10|0 O 8 | Coal. (Water.) 
O30) Sk Wark iclunch: 
12)"0 0 9 | Blue bind. 
13/0 0 5 Grey stone. (Water.) 
14;0 O 7} Blue bind. 
15|1 2 6] Grey stone. (Water.) 
16/3 1 0] Blue bind. 
7 | Oe Coals (Water) 
18;0 2 O}| Light clunch. 
19)1 O 0} Light stone. 
20/7 1 6} Dark blue bind. 
21;0 0 10] Black shale. (Water.) 
2210 2 0} Coal. : 
23;3 0 0} Dark clunch. 
1 70> 0); Blue bind: 
0 2 4 
moe 1G 


2711 2 6} Clinch and ironstone. 
2818 0 2! Dark blue stone bind and 
iroustone. 

29/2 1 0} Ditto bind with light stone 
beds. 
30|6 1 0} Grey stone with smut beds. 


(Much water.) 
Jan. 26, 1855. Commenced working the 
first lift of 9 im. pumps. 
31;0 2 O| Dark stony bind. ~ 
32|3 1 5] White stone mixed with 
bind. 2nd tubbing corb. 
1 0 10} White stone. (Much water, 
1000 gallons per minute.) 
Oct. 8, 1855. Commenced working with 
two sets of 9 in. pumps. 


August 14, 1854. Set-out shafts 10 ft. 


a a 


Thickness 
ie Suis Name of Strata. 
‘iyds. ft. in. 

May 19, 1856. Commenced pumping with 
four sets of 9 in pumps. 

Sept. 6, 1856. Stopped pumping; could 
not lower the water in either shaft. 

Nov. 22, 1858. Commenced pumping with 
four sets of 9 in. pumps. 

Jan. 27, 1859. Commenced cleaning dirt 
out of pit bottom. 


3310 0 32| Dark clunch. 

3410 0 4 | Black shale. 

35 1.0) O ah0s8Coale 

36|0 0 81 Soft sloome. 

37|1 0 3} Clunch. 

38|2 0 6| Grey stone. (Water, 300 
gallons per minute.) 

39 {0 O 11 | Stone bind. 8rd tubb. corb. 

40 ;1 2 1 | Stony bind. 4th ditto. 

EO A oO Dither 

41|1 2 0O| White stone. (Water, 80 

gallons per minute.) 

42;}0 0 3 | Ironstone. 

43}1 0 8 | Dark bind. 

4410 0 14) Ironstone. 

45/1 0 O | Dark bind. 

4610 0 14} Ironstone. 

47|0- 1-11 | Dark bind. 

4810 0 14) Ironstone. 

49|0 2 71! Dark bind. 

5010 O 14! Ironstone. 

51}0 2 11 Very dark bind. 

52|0 2 11 | Coal.(Water, 35 galls. min.) 

538{1 2 6) Dark clunch. 5th tub. corb. 

» | 210) Very dark bind. 

54/0 2 3 | Strong coal. 

55;0 1 4 | Light clunch. 

5610: 1 8] Dark bind. 

57|0 1 83 | Light bind. 

58'| 00 5 i@oalband ate 

59/0 1 - 9) tClunche 

60;1 2 6{|Grey stone. (Water, 130 
gallons per minute.) 

61/0 1 0Q | Stony bind. 6th tubb. corb. 

» |O0 O 7 | Steny bind. 

62|0 1 10} White stone | Water, 110 

63 3 1 6 Ribbony stones galls. min. 

64); 1 0 4 | Strong blue bind. 

65|0 0 2} Ironstone. 

66}0 1 6) Strong blue bind. 7th tubb. 


corb., 29th Dec., 1859. 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 415 


PARTICULARS OF STRATA AT HIGH PARK COLLIERY—continued. 


ATO. Thickness ie Thickness 
Bg nor Bees, Namo ooStaatas of | of Strata. WaioiGh Ainake 
Str. vas. ft. in. Str. |vds. ft. in. 
66| 2 0 10) Blue bind with ironstone | 108|2 2 0 | Grey stone. 
balls. 109}1 0 9 | Stony bind. 4th bricking 
6711 0. 0 | Soft coal. corb, 
68|1 0 6) Light clunch. » |4 2 4 | Stony bind. 
69|1 2 4 | Blue bind. 110|0 1 0O/| Black shale. 
70|0 1 2] Coal and bat. 1l1}1 2 4 | Light clunch. 
71|1 2 6) Tight clunch. 112|3 0 6 Grey stone. 
72;2 O 1) Darkstone. 113|}1 0 4 | Stony bind. 5th bricking 
73|0 O 9 | light stone. corb, Aug. 22, 1860. 
74|1 O 5 | Strong bind.8thtub.corb. | ,, | 2 0 9 | Stony bind. 
» |0 2 6} Raised pittop. Mar.1860. | 114) 1 0 2 | Dark stony bind. 
75|3 1 0O| Blue bind and ironstone. | 115|0 2 3) Black shale with thin beds 
9th tubbing corb. of ironstone. 
76/5 0 6 Strong bindandironstone. | 116|0 1 9 | Dark stone clunch. 
[st bricking corb, 117;0 1 8 Cank. Aug. 28th, 1860. 
7710 2 0} Black shale. 118} 1 2. 9 | Stone. ; 
78|0 0 23| Ironstone. 119|2 1 4| Dark bind. 6th bricking 
79|0 0O 8 | Black shale. corb., Sept. 3, 1860. 
80/0 0 23) Ironstone. 120|8 0 2| Stony bind. 7th bricking 
81) 0 2 9| Dark bind. | corb., Sept. 18, 1860. 
82/0 0 10] Black shale. PE}. 05-2 9) Goal: 
83|0 1 8| Coal. 122|0 1 0 | Dark stone clunch. 
84|1 0 7/| Strong stone clunch. 123) 2 1 6 | Grey clanch. 
85 |0 0 6} White stone. 124;0 1 8} Black shale. 8th bricking 
86|7 1 0| Dark bind and ironstone. corb., Sept. 22, 1860. 
2nd bricking corb. » |O 1 OJ Black shale. 
» |O 1 8] Dark bindand ironstone. | 125;0 2 8] Blue bind. 
87|0 2 6} Black shale. 126)0 0 4 |-Cank. 
8810 2 4| Coal. 127|2 1  8j| Black shale. 
89/0 1 2| Bat. 128;4 1 6) Bind and ironstone. 9th 
90; 2 1 8 | Strong clunch. bricking corb. 
91;0 0 2} Bat. 129;0 2 61 Soft coal (Comb coal). 
92°) Oa » 1 )-Clunch. Oct. 1, 1860. 
Dee! 0.0 +3.) Bat. 130 2 1 0} Clunchandironstone balls. 
94}1 1 4) Stoneclunch. 10thtubb. | 181!0 1 1 | Soft roof paw hei 
corb. 0 O 10} Rifler aA 3 i 
» |0 2 1) Stoneclunch. Jul.6,1860. Q 1 10} Main hard / “y lin 
95|6 2 10 | Stony bind. 0 1 4 | Bottom soft) ees 
96|0 0 7| Black shale. 1382/0 0 6) Holing sloome. 
97'1 0O 6) Stone clunch. LS3h) 0 2: 1) Clunch: 
98|2 0O 5 | Stony bind. 134) 1 2 2/| Stone. 
99;0 0 6) Bat. 135 | 2 2 11] Blue bind. 
100;0 1 8 | Clunch. 136 0> Ty LV Coal. 
101;}0 1 7| Bat and coal. 137 {1 1 6) Clunch. 10th brick. corb. 
102|}0 2 8 | Clunch. 3rd brickingcorb, | 185) 4 1 0 | Stone bind. 
July 31st, 1860, 139|0 0 8 | Ironstone. 
103} 1 0 8 | Stone clunch. 140} 4 1 9) Blue bind and ironstone. 
1104/2 1 0} Stony bind. 11th bricking corb. 
105|}0 0O 10) Coal. Bottom of sump. 
106} 1 O 10) Light clunch. 141} 0 2 1/1 Dunsil coal. 
107;0 1 7j| Cank. 


— 


ee 


416 


PARTICULARS 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


OF 


THE STRATA SUNK THROUGH AT COTMANHAY 


COLLIERY, IN THE PARISH OF ILKESTON, IN THE COUNTY OF 


DERBY. 


No Thickness 
pam of Strata. 


Ptr. | ds. ft. in. 


2 


9 


HSI OOW OW OHO 
Se HH HYOoewowsd 
HSHOdOMH4ODWODMDWAO 


oor Ocoeo& 
bt et ECD 0 


S&S CO CO 2 OD 


bo (=) 
wo 
(<=) rate 


SCOorooHrEeRoer «a S 
HF ooowowoco 
ORWROWROWE 


Name of Strata. 


Soil and clay. 
Coal. 
Soft clunch. 
Brown stone. 
Soft bind. 
Tronstone. 
Stone bind. 
Grey stone. 
Stone bind. 
Soft soapy bind. 
Soft bind with black 
bands of thin ironstone. 
Black shale. 
Soft white bind, 
Jay and coal. 
Dark clunch. 
Stone. 
Stone bind with iron- 
stone beds. 
Tronstone. (Whetstone 
rake.) 
Broad bind with iron- 
stone beds. 
Black bind. 
Tronstone. 
Broad black bind. 
Soft white bind. 
Black shale. 
White bind. 


Tronstone 
Brown 


Water in these measures. 


Black shale ‘ak 

Tronstone ne 

Bind and shale alter- 
nately. 


0 
31/0 
i 


ww 
OC 
SOc 


GH WOH WHOORMAWOOWOOHOO Oo 


5811 


‘lyds. ft. 


jae) COCCOWMWNOUWVOCOCOHFOWHKNOHDA =) 


Thickness 
"| of Strata. 


o> 
SSNS SJ CMS 


ae COCK HWNADAMDODOKROAAGQWODsws co 


Name of Strata. 


Coal 

Tire clay. 

Strong stoneclunch. Tub- 
bing corb. 

Strong bind with ironstone. 

Craw stone. 

Troustone. 

Black shale with } 
large balls of | eae 
ironstone eco 

Stone (bottom | **** 
ironstone). J 

Black shale. 

Clunch. 

Stone bind with ironstone. 

Coal (Ell). 

Strong stone clunch, 

Stone. 

Clunch. 

Coal. 

Stone clunch. 

Stone and Cank. 

Strong stone bind. 

Main smut. 

Soft clunch. 

Stone. 

Strong broad bind. 

Main soft coal. 

Bat. 

Stony clunch. 

Dark stone. 

Strong broad bind with 
small beds of ironstone. 

Hard Pothouse coal (main). 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 


ON BITUMINOUS SCHISTS* AND THEIR RELATION TO COAL. 
By PROFESSOR D. T. Anstep, M.A., E.R.S. 


Rocks in which naphtha, petroleum, rock oil, bitumen, asphalte, and 
other mineral hydrocarbons are present in sufficient abundance to cha- 


* This term, “ bituminous schists,” is not altogether correct, as the minerals so called 
It is, however, in familiar use, and to be 
preferred to the term “pyro-schist ” suggested by Dr. Sterry Hunt, which is equally in- 
correct, without having the advantage of being familiar. 


do not contain bitumen properly so called. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 417 


racterize the deposit or attract attention, are widely distributed in various 
geological formations, and belong to no special geological period. Crys- 
talline and metamorphic rocks contain chapopote and other forms of bitu- 
men. Rock oil rises in jets from below Silurian, Devonian, and carboni- 
ferous rocks in North America. Bituminous limestones and schists occur 
in Ireland in Silurian rocks, and at Caithness in Devonian rocks, and else- 
where, not unfrequently in the British Islands, in carboniferous rocks. 
Bituminous schists are important in the Permian series in Germany, and not 
absent in the New led Sandstone. The Posidonia schists of the Lias and 
other beds are highly bituminous, and in the Oolites, the cretaceous rocks, 
and even in the Tertiaries, especially in Germany, the same bituminous 
character often prevails. Asphalte is common:in some Tertiaries ; oil rises 
from the nummulitic rocks in the Hast, and in the West Indies we have 
the Pitch-lake of Trinidad. 

In almost all these cases there is a marked distinction between coal, 
properly so called, and rocks containing: the hydrocarbons. Coal is mineral 
fuel, from which gas can be obtained’ by destructive, and occasionally cer- 
tain oils by slow, distillation. The various’ bituminous rocks or bitumens 
contained in rocks are not good fuel, but yield largely certain valuable 
products by slow distillation. Coal can be coked, and the coke, or unburnt 
carbon, is a valuable fuel. The best and richest of the bituminous schists 
will not coke, and the result of an attempt to make it is to produce an ash 
that will not burn. 

Notwithstanding this general distinction, coal passes insensibly into 
eannel coal, or parrot, and this again appears to pass into those peculiar 
shales rich in bitumen, known in Scotland as Boghead coal or Torbane Hill 
mineral. These remain debatable ground. ‘Specimens of them, carelessly 
collected, have been used as fuel; but parts of the same sample are often 
coal, while the rest is shale, and thus much confusion has arisen as to the 
fuel question. ‘They are unusually rich in valuable oils, and form a curious 
passage between two minerals—coal and shale, or schist—that do not ge- 

nerally bear any resemblance. 

The distinction between coal and shale is practically very important, and 
deserves careful consideration. I wish to direct the attention of the Sec- 
tion to some instances that may help to throw light upon the question. 

Two localities in France visited by me in the year 1861 are particularly 
interesting in this respect, and deserve to be better known by English geo- 
logists than they seem to be. The rocks in both are of the carboniferous 
period. The various places where the Lias schists are now worked for dis- 
tillation, chiefly in Germany, are also worthy of special reference, and the 
Tertiary bituminous shales of the Rhine are not less important. 

At Feymoreau, a short distance from Fontenay-le-Comte, situated in the 
Bourbon Vendée, betw een Nantes and Rochelle, there is a small coal- 
field, almost classical in respect to the important distillation of light oils 
by slow distillation of rocks containing hydrocarbons. It was at this spot, 
then far less accessible than it now is, “that M. Selligué, so long ago as in 
1830, obtained light paraffine oil, heavier illuminating oil, lubricating oil, 
and paraffine, by # a method identical with that patented by Mr. Young in 
England in 1851. The works were abandoned owing to the want of com- 
munication with a market, and M. Selligué afterwards established works, 
still carried on successfully, at Autun. 

The Feymoreau schists underlie coal of a poor quality, and thus replace 
underclay, but they contain no vegetable impressions or markings. ‘They 
are of deep black colour, hard and tough when first exposed, but fall to 
pieces after a time. They burn freely, with much smoke and a long flame, 

VOL. V. 3 i 


418 THE GEOLOGIST. 


but cannot be used as fuel. Externally they much resemble the better 
qualities of Boghead and Torbane Hill mineral, but they yield only about 
15 per cent. of light oil on slow distillation. They contain 60 per cent. of 
ash, and some water. The schists and coal both vary in thickness, and 
occasionally seem to pass into each other. The schists are in some places 
30 to 40 feet thick, but they do not extend far in any direction, or at least 
if they extend under the coal, which seems probable, they are not every- 
where bituminous. 

The Feymoreau schists agree with the rich hydrocarbon minerals of 
Torbane Hill and Boghead, in Scotland, in appearance, geological position, 
and in the fact that they occasionally alternate with coal. They differ in 
being far less rich in useful products, and they are always and readily dis- 
tinguishable as schists, never putting on the appearance of true coal. 

On the other side of France is Autun, where there is also a small coal- 
field; but where bituminous schists cf precisely the same nature as those 
at Feymoreau generally occur in a part of the carbomiferous series consi- 
siderably above the highest coal-seam, and several hundred yards above 
any workable bed. Below the coal at Autun are coarse grits of granite and 
gneiss, alternating with black shales. 

The bituminous shales are partly quarried, and partly obtained by drifts 
or headings reaching the more valuable beds. There are about ten feet of 
bituminous schist at Cordesse, where I visited the operations of mining 
and manufacture; and of these five only are valuable. Elsewhere the 
thickness is greater. The broken schist is black ; but at the surface, while 
in the bed, it is reddish-brown. The percentage of bitumen is very variable, 
sometimes amounting to 50 per cent. of oils of all kinds, but the average 
not much exceeding 6 at Cordesse, though much higher at Igornay, a place 
in the neighbourhood where there are also works. At Chamboy, the rich 
shales are nearer the coal and alternate with it. A grey limestone and 
grey ironstone occur in some parts of the Autun coal-field. 

The Autun mineral oils are moderately rich in paraffine. The shales will 
not serve as a fuel, and are never so employed. Some beds are rather py- 
ritous, and others abound with vegetable impressions, differing in this re- 
spect from the Feymoreau schist. The general resemblance of the Autun 
specimens to Boghead is very striking. 

_ The manufacture of schist oils and parafline candles is carried on exten- 
sively in more than one place near Autun, and the quantity supplied is 
large. The methods adopied are the same as those of Mr. Young in ge- 
neral principle, and are said to have been little altered for twenty years. 

The Tertiary shales below the brown coal on the Rhine are-found in many 
places to be very bituminous. They have no resemblance to coal or brown 
coal, and are easily distinguished from the latter. They are thin, and form 
the blatte, or paper coal, of the Germans. They are worked near Linz and 
elsewhere, and are distilled at Beul, opposite Bonn, the products being 
precisely similar to those obtained from the other bituminous schists, and 
in nearly the same proportions ; but the yield is small. 

The Posidonia schists of the Upper Lias are worked at present for eco- 
nomic purposes at Bamberg, in the north of Bavaria, and at Reutlingen, 
near Tubingen, in Wiirtemberg. The manufacture of light paraffine -oil, 
heavy oils for burning, lubricating oil, and paraffine, has been carried on 
with some success by the distillaticn of these schists for some years. Re- 
cently a similar establishment has commenced work with the schists of si- 
milar age at Orawicza in Hungary, near the Danube at Baziasch. 

The Kisleben shales, amongst which the copper slate is deposited, are 
not less remarkable for their bitumen. This is apparently very intimately 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 419 


connected with the schists, well known to geologists for the abundance of 
fossil fish found in them. In this case, therefore, there seems great proba- 
bility of the biiumen being of animal origin. No difference has been ob- 
served as to the contents obtained on distillation. 

The Kimmeridge “coal” is an unmistakable shale, but some portions 
resemble lignite. It has occasionally been used for obtaining paraffine ; but, 
being much less rich than the Scotch shales, the result is not sufficiently 
encouraging to justify a continuance of the experiment. 

It is possible that some of the other black shales known in various de- 
posits may be found available, and may come into use for distillation. 

It is evident that bituminous schists of various dates, some associated 
with and resembling coal, some even passing into coal, others totally un- 
hke coal in every respect and far removed from it geologically, exist in 
various countries in considerable abundance, and admit of profitable dis- 
tillation at low heat for the purpose of manufacturing, illuminating, and lu- 
bricating oils and paraffine. It is important that such substances should 
be recognized as a class and not mixed up with coal, and that there should 
be some understanding as to what coal is, and in what it differs from the 
carbonaceous and bituminous minerals with which it is often loaded. 

I append a list of a few of the rocks and localities where bituminous 
schists and their products are obtained. It would certainly admit of great 
expansion :— 


Lower Silurian . Ireland and America (Utica Slates). 
Upper Silurian . Ditto. 
Devonian . . . Caithness schists. Shale with 30 per cent. of organic 


matter, and a residue of 8 per cent. of carbon. 
American rock oils (some localities). 
Carboniferous. American rock oils. 
| Torbane Hill and Boghead, etc., minerals. 
Lower, Middle, / Parrots and cannel coal. 
and Upper . | Terre houille of Belgium. 
Vauyvont or Feymoreau schists, La Vendée. 

Above coal . Autun schists. 

Permian . . . Hisleben shales and Kupfer schiefer. 5 to 20 per 
cent. of light oils. 

Mansfeld schists. 

Tias. . . . .  Posidonia schists, worked in Northern Bavaria, at 
Banz; in Wiirtemberg, near Tiibingen; at Ora- 
vieza in Hungary. 

Oolites . . . . Kimmeridge shale (Dorsetshire), a shale used for dis- 
tillation to obtain paraffine, and occasionally serving 
as a very poor fuel. 

Cretaceous. . . Various schists in the Alps. 

Tertiary . . . Paper “coal,” near Bonn (under:the brown coal). 

Deposits beneath nummulitic rock in the East. 


I have no doubt that a little research would remind us of many 
other localities, but these are enough to show the presence of a certain 
quantity of hydrocarbons (the result, there can be no doubt, of organic 
matter) exhibited in this form, a part of which has sometimes been con- 
verted into coal, but which is more usually quite distinct from coal and 
unconnected with it. 

I have not alluded in this paper to the surface accumulations of petro- 
Jeum or to the asphalte with sand and in sandstone, nor to the chapapote of 
Cuba—a very remarkable deposit, deserving distinct notice. I have confined 
my remarks to the bituminous schists, to bring the subject within compass. 


420 THE GEOLOGIST. 


ON THE SKIDDAW SLATE VEINS. 
By Proressor Harkness, F.R.S., F.G.S: 


The author pointed out the several areas where the Skiddaw slates occur 
in Cumberland and Westmoreland. He then proceeded to detail the na- 
ture of a section from Newlands, between Derwentwater and Buttermere 
on the south, to the carboniferous rocks at Sunderland on the north. This 
section exhibits two well-marked axes; and through the series of rocks 
which occur between these axes and the green rocks appertaining to a 
higher series, wherever the Skiddaw slates put on a flaggy character, these 
strata afford fossils. 

A section from the green rocks on the north of Great Dod, across Sad- 
dleback, the valley of the Calden, and Caldbeck Fells, through the Skid- 
daw slate beds, was next described. This section shows a considerable de- 
velopment of metamorphic rocks in-the valley of the Calden in connection 
with the granite of Skiddaw Forest, as alluded to by Professor Sedgwick ; 
and the strata in this section have for the most part a §.8.E. inclination. 
In this section, where the rocks are not metamorphical, and when devoid 
of cleavage, they also afford fossils. 

A section along the eastern margin of the Skiddaw slate and the super- 
ficial green rocks of Westmoreland was next referred to. In this section 
three small but separate patches of Skiddaw slates were pointed out, viz. 
one on the S.E. side of Ullswater; another in Rosgill Beck, and a third in 
Thornship Beck ; and in the two latter Skiddaw slate has been worked for 
slate-pencils. These also have furnished Professor Harkness with fossils, 
and their appearance is the result of three axes oecurring between Ulls- 
water and Wastdale Crag. 

In a fourth section across Black Comb, the arrangement of the Skiddaw 
slates, as these occur in their most southern position in the Lake district, 
was also indicated. In the Black Comb area the prevalent dips are 
N.N.W., and from near'the base of the Skiddaw in this section fossils were 
also obtained. : 

The organic remains which Professor Harkness procured from the seve- 
ral areas of Skiddaw slate consist. for the most part of graptolites. Of 
these, there are two genera which have been recognized by Mr. Salter as 
known in the Quebec beds of Sir W. Logan: and in the Lower Silurians of 
Australia, viz. Tetragrapsus and Dendrograpsus of Hall. Besides these 
there is a phyllopod Crustacean, which Mr. Salter regards as identical 
with a form from the Australian Lower Silurians. Professor Harkness 
also indicated the occurrence of tracks in the Skiddaw slates, and pointed 
out certain bodies which he regarded as the cases of Annelids allied to the 
modern Terebella. 

The position of the Skiddaw slates and their fossil contents justify the 
conclusion that they are referable to the horizon of the Lower Llandeilo. 


ON THE PALEONTOLOGY OF MINERAL VEINS, AND THE SECON- 
DARY AGE OF SOME MINERAL VEINS IN CARBONIFEROUS 
LIMESTONE, 

By Cuartes Moore, F.G.S. 


_In directing the attention of the Geological Section of the British Asso- 
ciation to the above subject, the author first referred to remarkable geolo- 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE, 421 


gical phenomena he had noticed in the Carboniferous Limestones of the 
Mendip Hills. Through the whole of this district he observed that the 
beds had been very much fissured, and that most of them had subsequently 
‘been filled in with deposits containing numerous organic remains of dif- 
ferent geological ages, some of which were probably as young as the Infe- 
rior Oolite. A small roadside section at Holwell, on the south-east of 
the Mendip, was described, in which, at the base, Carboniferous Lime- 
stone was present ; whilst resting unconformably upon it was a dense un- 
stratified conglomeratic deposit, containing shelis of the age of the Middle 
Lias, and on this rested thin horizontal beds of Inferior Oolite. The out- 
crop of a mineral vein was also present in this section. Near the above 
was a quarry 200 feet in length, within which were thirteen vertical fis- 
sures passing down through inclined stratified beds of Carboniferous Lime- 
stone: one of them being fifteen feet in breadth at the base of the quarry. 
These fissures, which occupied nearly one-third of the section, had been 
filled in by a dense variegated limestone, containing occasionally Brachio- 
poda, Crustacea, Belemnites, and fish and reptilian remains of secondary 
age. 
In an adjoiming quarry to the above Mr. Moore found a softer infilling, 
three cart-loads of which he removed to his residence, and found therein 
teeth of the Wicrolestes, the oldest known quadruped ; various reptilia, 
including Placodus and Thecodontosaurus ; more than 50,000 teeth of the 
Lophodus, together with an immense number of other organic remains, 
from the age of the Carboniferous Limestone to that of the Inferior Oolite, 
though they appeared chiefly to have been derived from the bone-bed of 
Rheetic age. 

In the upper portions of some of these fissures, galena, sulphate of 
barytes, and iron ore were occasionally present, which showed that in 
these cases the minerals must necessarily be of secondary age. Desirous 
of more fully investigating this point, the author examined the mineral 
deposits of the Mendips, in doing which he descended the Charter House 
Mine, and obtained very interesting results. The lead mines of this dis- 
trict had been extensively worked in’the Roman period, the slags and 
slimes they left being now profitably re-worked. The vein-stuff of the 
above mine was found to be very varied in its character. At one point it 
was almost entirely composed of disjointed encrinital stems, with a few 
corals, all much abraded by the action of water. Ata depth of 175 feet, 
where the working had ceased, there occurred a deposit of blue marl eight 
feet in thickness, which yielded 73 per cent. of lead ore. In this marl he 
found organic remains in the greatest abundance, and eventually succeeded 
in obtaining about 130 species, a few being derived from the Carboniferous 
Limestone, though the greater number were of secondary age. They con- 
sisted of an Ammonite, Belemnites, ten species of Brachiopoda, including 
Zellania—hitherto found only by the author in the Upper Lias and the 
Inferior Oolite ; also, Thecideum, Crania, Lingula, Rhynchonella, Spirifer, 
ete. Of univalves, there were about thirty species ; of Foraminifera, fif- 
teen ; fish remains were abundant, consisting of teeth, scales, and bones of 
probably fifteen species. In this clay were also blocks of stone containing 
shells and pieces of drift-wood, the latter having been converted into jet. 

From these facts it became evident that the Mendip lead-veins had been 
within the influence of the ocean during the secondary period, and that 
the minerals they contained could not be of more ancient date. 

The district around Bristol was then noticed, and it was shown that 
precisely similar phenomena occurred there in the Carboniferous Limestone. 
At Clifton, the Thecodontosaurus had been found; and it- was urged that 


4.23 THE GEOLOGIST. 


as he had found similar reptilian remains in fissures at Holwell, the depo- 
sits had been formed under corresponding circumstances. At Weston- 
super-Mare, also, numerous remains had been found in a fissure which was 
being worked for lead ore. 

Perceiving that a general law prevailed in all the mineral deposits of the 
Carboniferous Limestone, the author next obtained samples from six mines 
in the same formation, from Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland ; and 
in four of them found organic remains more or less abundant. 

From Weardale, out of twenty-seven small samples they were obtained 
in fourteen—the lowest being 678 feet from the surface ; they consisted 
of Cephalopoda, Brachiopoda, univalves, Foraminifera, Echini, Encrinites, 
Entomostraca, ete. From Alston Moor similar remains were obtained 
from five out of eleven samples ; and from the White Mines, Cumberland, 
in two out of seven. ‘The most interesting results obtained from vein stuff 
from the north of England, were from samples for which the author was 
indebted to Mr. Eddey, of the Grassington Mines, Shipton. In one small 
sample, which, when washed, was reduced to half an ounce in weight, not 
less than 156 specimens were found, including the little brachiopod Zedlania, 
before mentioned as occurring in the Mendip vein, though never found in 
any stratified bed lower than the Upper Lias. Also, numerous univaives 
and Entomostraca, and a few minute claw-like bones or spines, similar to 
some he had found in one of the veins at Clifton. From this sample many 
Conodonts were obtained. These were supposed to be portions of crus- 
tacea, but they had hitherto never been found in strata higher than the 
Ludlow bone-bed of Silurian age. 

Owing to the highly mineralized character of the vein stuff from the 
Conolly Mines, no organisms were observed, nor were any found in that 
from Twaledale. From the carbonaceous-looking character of the mate- 
rial in the latter case, the author suspected it to have been chiefly derived 
from the coal-measures. 

Samples from a mine in Devonian, and also in Silurian strata, had been 
examined; but, owing to their mineralized condition, they yielded no 
organisms. 

Mr. Moore argued that all our mineral veins, from the oldest to the 
more recent, were due to the same general laws; that there was no evi- 
dence of their contents having been derived from volcanic agency, nor, as 
has also been supposed, by any electrical action removing them from the 
adjoining rocks, and redepositing them in the veins. His view was, that 
the fissures now containing mineral veins, when open, had, during different 
geological periods, been traversed by the ancient seas of that time, and 
their derived contents deposited; and that whilst these infillings were pro- 
ceeding, the minerals, which might previously have been held in solution in 
the water, were, by the operation of electrical or other causes, precipitated ; 
and that thus, instead of being due to voleanie action, they were to be 
attributed to aqueous and sedimentary deposition. 


ON THE GEOLOGY OF PART OF THE COUNTY SLIGO. 
By Mr. A. B. Wynne. 


In this paper the author stated that he had put together a few notes upon 
a very extensive district, which were made during a short trip in the sum- 
mer of 1862. He alluded to the papers by Sir R. Griffith, Bart., Arch- 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 423 


deacon Verschoyle, and Mr. John Kelly, upon parts of the same country, 
and proceeded to describe the district as composed of a great nearly hori- 
zontal series of stratified rocks, consisting of sandstones below, carboni- 
ferous limestones of impure, thin, and shaly character above, and paler, 
more pure limestones of the same group overlying them; the whole sur- 
mounted by 400 feet of the millstone-grit series. This group of horizontal 
rocks forms fine tabular mountains, with picturesque valleys, and a pecu- 
liar likeness in all their profiles. Cutting across the country formed by 
these horizontal beds is the rugged chain of the Ox Mountains, extending 
from Mayo across the county of Sligo to the south of Lough Gill, and 
terminating beyond Benbo mountain, in county Leitrim. Some of the 
most picturesque valleys in the county are the lateral ones near this chain, 
running along its flanks, and dividing the old micaceous and gneissose rocks 
of which it is formed from the horizontal series above alluded to; and in 
these valleys, as well as transversely crossing the chain, occur deposits of 
serpentine of considerable size and interesting character. 

The denudation which exposed the Ox Mountains at the east end of the 
chain was alluded to, and the circumstance stated, that the limestone con- 
tained bands of sandstone which appeared to be of irregular thickness, and 
were most numerous in the lower part of the carboniferous series seen in 
the district under consideration. 

The occurrence of trap-dykes and mineral deposits was noticed, and 
also the changes of level at recent periods, as well as the manner of the 
occurrence of the drift, which was found, in one instance, to contain shells 
of the common mussel, at a considerable distance from the sea, and in con- 
nection with which, the horns, skulls, and other bones of fossil deer and 
eattle had been found. The paper was illustrated, and a list of fossils 
(by W. H. Baily, Esq.) found in the district was appended. 


ON THE CAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE IN THE STATE OF PRE- 
SERVATION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOSSIL SHELLS. 


By H. C. Sorsy, F.R:S. 


Most geologists have, no doubt, remarked, that in very many rocks 
certain kinds of fossil shells are well preserved, whilst others are very 
badly preserved, or have entirely vanished, and left nothing but casts : 
for instance, oysters retaining their organic structure, whilst many others, 
like trigoniz or most univalves, having lost their original structure, being 
quite crystalline, or even having been entirely removed. After having 
made many experiments with recent and fossil shells, the author has been 
led to conclude that this difference was due to the original difference in the 
mineral constitution of the various shells; and that when their carbonate 
of lime was in the state of calcite they were less prone to undergo any 
change ; but where it was in the state of aragonite they always have had 
a tendency to become crystalline, by passing into calcite, or to he entirely 
removed if the conditions were more favourable to the crystallization of 
calcite in some other place rather than in situ. 


———— 


is =, Se 


Pe ee = es 


ta.“ *) 


Ma 8 i, eT Bis te 


424 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


Tur Kyson Monxty.—A letter “On the Hyracotherian character of 
the Lower Molars of the supposed Macacus from the Hocene Sand of 
Kyson, Suffolk,” by Professor Owen, F.R.S., has been published in 
the ‘Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist.’ (vol. x. p. 240). Professor Owen 
says, “The fossil teeth from the Eocene Sand at Kyson, in Suffolk, 
referred by me to a species of Macacus, are most probably the lower 
molars of a species of Hyracotherium (H. cuniculus). The great differ- 
ence of shape between the upper and lower molars of Pliolophus, and the 
pattern on which the lower molars are differentiated in that Hyracotherioid 
animal, led me to suspect that the degree of difference between the upper 
molars of Pliolophus and those of Hyracotheriwm might be attended with 
a corresponding degree of difference in the lower molars of the two genera ; 
and that such degree might render the lower molars of Hyracotherium as 
much like the lower molars of Macacus as the detached two molars are 
which were first discovered by Mr. Colchester, and described by me. In 
the collection of the late Mr. Acton were a series of both upper and lower 
molars from the Kyson deposits; the upper ones of the Hyracotherium 
type, and the lower ones analogous in their modifications to those in 
Pliolophus, but more resembling the type of Macacus, and the same in 
character as the original molars, which I referred in the volume of the 
‘Annals’ above cited to Macacus.” 

Human Sxeveton at Kewiet, 1n Lancasuire.—In the ‘ Geologist’ 
for June, I contributed a brief notice of the above discovery of a human 
skeleton under the conditions detailed in the annexed excerpt from the 
‘Lancaster Guardian’ of May 17th, 1862 :— 

“* Discovery of a Skeleton at Kellet.—In the course of the present week 
the skeleton of a young woman has been found at Kellet, under the fol- 
lowing circumstances :—On Wednesday, Mr. Bailie, of Lancaster, coal- 
merchant, was looking for rockery-stone amongst the limestone-rock at 
Kellet Seeds, and picked up in a natural fissure of the rock a bone, which 
he at once concluded to be that of the leg of a human being. On remoy- 
ing some other stones in the fissure, a perfect skeleton was found, lying 
on its side, with the skull underneath, and presenting the appearance of 
having been jammed in with some force. There was nosign of any metal, 
clothing, or hair, and as there was another fissure under the one m which 
the skeleton was placed, it is possible that any articles which might have 
aided identification have fallen into the cavity below. From the confor- 
mation of the skeleton it was evidently that of a woman, and the state of 
the teeth as clearly showed the youth of the individual. There can be 
little doubt that this is a revelation of some deed of violence. The district 
of Kellet, in days gone by, was rather noted for the lawlessness of its in- 
habitants, which had become proverbial. It is said in the village that 
about a hundred years ago a young woman left her home with some show- 
folks, and was not heard of again. This is the only fact we can glean as 
at all likely to elucidate the discovery at Kellet Seeds.” 

Through the kindness of Captain Barrie, R.N., and of W. Bollaert, Esq., 
F.R.G.S., T have had the opportunity of inspecting the fractured skull. 
The calvarium is large, full, and is markedly brachycephalic. The frontal 
sinuses are large, the supraorbital ridges being undeveloped. 

Under the circumstances, as no implements, etc., were found with the 
skull, any generalization on its age would be premature. The limestone 
fissure being open at the top is a circumstance which throws great doubt 


PLATE XXIII. 


. |) 
i 


: 
| 
| 
bi 
| 
| 
d 
|| 
} 
| 


(wl = 


\ 


wird 


pe 


‘i roniunnnit 


Fig. 5. . Fig. 6. 


kull. 5. Frontal Bone from Heathery Burn Cave. 6. Leicester Skull. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 4,25 


on the discovery. It is, however, possible that it may be at least as ancient 
as some of the other crania, ¢.g. the one from Mewslade, to which I have 
already referred. 

I have Professor Busk’s permission to subjoin the following extract of 
his notes on the Kellet skull :— 

6th August.— If the fissure in question were open from the top, it may 
be asked, why did not the body fall, or be introduced into it that way ? 
Except from concomitant circumstances, and, in some cases, perhaps their 
chemical condition, I do not think much can be predicated of a single skull, 
at any rate with respect to its age, from its form alone. The Mewslade 
skull, also found in a limestone fissure, but with many very ancient animal 
remains, undoubtedly its contemporaries, is not, as you are aware, of the 
rounded type, like the Scandinavian and Scottish stone-age crania, but 
moderately dolichocephalic, and flat, or rather straight, along the summit. 
I have not seen the Etruscan skull you mention, but presume it to be, as 
i hint, brachycephalic. If so, the Kellet skull will not resemble the 

ewslade and several of the river-bed skulls, which, there is reason to 
believe, are properly of a later population than the brachycephalic.” 

12th August.— It is rather a curious form, being, as you say, strongly 
brachycephalic (about 850), and so far it corresponds with the Scandinavian 
stone men ; but in other respects it differs very widely from them, being in 
the first place far more capacious, and very wide, especially in the frontal re- 
gion, remarkably even in contour, and with a look altogether of higher breed- 
ing. ‘The superciliary arches are thin and fine, totally unlike the beetle 
brows of the old Danes; and the remains of the ossa nasi show that he 
had a prominent, thin, and, may be, aquiline nose. The lower jaw is 
light in comparison, and the angle prominent, as is common, I believe, in 
what are termed the Roman crania by Davis and Thurnam. On the 
whole, I am inclined to refer it to a much later period than the stone, 
notwithstanding the fossilized condition of the bones; but it would be 
very interesting to find some articles with it. . . . The shape at vertex is 
flattened, and not so pyramidal as the true stone skulls. 

“T am yours truly, 
“Gero. Busx.” 

It is, of course, hardly necessary to say that I coincide entirely in these 
observations ; and do not doubt that my readers will be pleased to hear 
that a decade of “ Priscan crania”’ is now completed, and will shortly be 
eonocts by Professor Busk, in addition to his magnificent ‘ Crania 

ypica. 

L am also indebted to Professor Busk, F.R.S., for the beautiful and ac- 
curate outline of the Kellet skull, taken in four different aspects; and to 
Mr. 8. J. Mackie, F.G.S., for the drawings of the frontal bone (B) from 
Heathery Burn, and the Leicester skull, referred to by me in the ‘ Geolo- 
gist,’ vol. vy. p. 313. The Kellet skull will be ultimately deposited in the 
Kthnological Society’s collection.—CHartes Carrer Brake. 

Human Remains 1n River Beps.—Sir,—No better proof can be given 
of the accuracy of the observations in your comments on the Geologist’s 
Association (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 320) that the geology of the neigh- 
bourhood of London affords many yet unexplored topics of interest, than 
the following scattered facts :— 

John Hunter, writing about the year 1793, quotes a letter which he had 
oo from Sir James Hall, of Scotland, dated Rome, February 24th, 

85. 

_ In this letter a hill is described that lies about three miles from Rome, 
in the road to Loretto. “It is about 300 or 400 yards beyond an old 

VOL. ¥. 31 


4.26 THE GEOLOGIST. 


tower, called Torre del Quinto. A tomb, called Ovid’s, is dug into it; and 
50 or 60 yards nearer Rome is a gravel-pit, which is the spot in question. — 
The hill terminates abruptly in a vertical crag, at the foot of which the 
road passes, leaving it on the left-hand as one goes from Rome. This crag 
exhibits the internal structure of the mass, which consists of horizontal 
strata. The hill is about 100 feet high above the level of the plain along 
which it passes :— j 

“Ist. The upper part, on which the vegetable earth rests, is a bed 60 or 
80 feet thick, of a kind of tufa or soft volcanic stone, full of lumps of black 
pumice of the size of a fist, more or less. 

“Ind. A stratum of rolled pebbles, of various kinds of stone, some cal- 
careous, some flinty, and some pumice. In general they have undergone 
some action, which makes them crumble when taken out; in some places 
they are bound by a calcareous cement, and in others litle attached, and 
mixed with sand. This stratum is about 3 feet thick in one place, and 
tapers from right to left to the thickness of a few inches, on an extent of 
30 or 40 yards... . 

“We found the bones contained in this box in the first stratum of gravel 
between the two beds of tufa. We got up to this place by a bank formed 
by the crumbling of the hill above, and the matters thrown out of the 
gravel-pit on the right side of it. There is the greatest reason to suppose 
that the place where they were found had never been moved since the tufa 
came there; that is, that the bones and the stones of the stratum were 
placed there by the same cause, and previous to the formation of the upper 
bed of tufa [viz. that which is 60 or 80 feet thick]. 

“The place in which we found the bones extends 8 or 9 feet from right 
to left, and probably goes further to the left in that place, where the stratum 
of gravel passes along the roof of the gravel-pit; but there it was inac- 
cessible. We did not dig anywhere above 3 feet into the bank, being afraid 
of bringing down the rock above by undermining it. It appears certain 
that the bones were brought there, along with the pebbles, loose, as bones, 
not in carcasses, for they lie scattered together without the least connection ; 
and their number is so great, compared to the space they occupy, that there 
would not have been room for so many bodies. 

“Their nature is various, and indicates the presence of at least five or 
six distinct kinds of land-animals, and, among the rest, two individuals of 
the human species.—J. Hatt.” 

“This hill [Hunter proceeds to say] must have been formed before the 
Romans took possession of this place, and probably by the formation 
of the hill. The Tiber made its way in this direction, for it cuts the hill 
across. This is probably the only instance met with of human bones being 
in such a state. But in future ages, when the present rivers may take a 
new turn [through localities] in which are deposited human bones, many 
may be found; for in sinking the caissons for Blackfriars Bridge a human 
skull was found 12 feet under the bed of the river.” * 

On the table of the Ethnological Society, on March 18th last, I placed, 
through the kindness of Mr. Sass, specimens of chipped flints from the 
valley of the Thames at Biackfriars Bridge, and from Teddington Lock. 
These flints, though not of the highest geologico-archzological antiquity, 
yet by their simplicity of workmanship indicated a race which had pro- 
gressed but little towards civilization. I am not in possession of any 
information as to the depth at which these remains were found. 

Mr. Mackie has drawn my attention to three skulls recently deposited 

aed ‘Essays and Observations on Natural History,’ by Professor Owen, vol. i. 
p. 321. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 427 


in the Antiquities Department of the British Museum, by Mr. Franks, 
which were derived from the bed of the Thames, at Battersea, I have 
not yet been able to give them the attention which they merit, but shall 
compare them with the Kast Hain, Kellet, and Leicester skulls, which 
they resemble more than they do the Sennen, Borris, Blackwater, Musk- 
ham, ete., series of true “ river-bed ” skulls. 

I trust that all further evidences of human bones or works that may 
occur in or near London will be carefully recorded, and that above all, 
whenever there are geological evidences of antiquity such evidences may 
be thoroughly sifted and properly recorded in the same careful manner as 
was done in the case of the Heathery Burn relics, under the effective 
direction of the editor of this journal.—CnHartes Carter BLaKe. 

Veeeraste Remains at BournremMouru.—Sir,—Making inquiries to- 
day of a labouring man employed in a gravel-pit, as to whether he had 
ever met with animal remains in the eravel, or shells below it, he gave 
the following as the only instance of the sort within his own knowledge: :— 

* About eight years ago, whilst working in a pit for white clay, w hich is 
sent to Staffordshire, ata place about one mile on the Poole side of Bourne- 

mouth, in Dorsetshire, at forty-two feet below the surface we came upon an 
oak-tree two feet in diameter. At first it seemed hard, but on exposure to 
the air it could be broken away with the nail; the /eaves were there in the 
clay, entire, but we could not succeed in removing any of them: they all 
came to pieces; although we tried every means to do so, placing them 
between the leaves of books, as some of the ladies there wished to have 
them.” 

Further inquiry on the spot, by any one who had the opportunity, 
might be interesting, if the case has not already been recorded. 

lam, your obedient Servant, 

Southampton, October 1st, 1862. W. N. 

Fossin Monty 1n THE Mtocrene.—The following announcement is 
made in Professor Owen’s recently published memoir, ‘‘ On the Osteology 
of the Chimpanzees and Orangs,” in the Zoological Society’s Transactions, 
page 18 :— 

““T have been favoured by Dr. Kaup with the cast of a fossil femur 
from the Eppelsheim miocene, near Darmstadt, and with the request that 
I would compare it with the femora of the large anthropoid apes in our 
metropolitan museums. This femur is 11 inches 3 lines in length, is 
2 inches across the proximal, and 1 inch 7 lines across the distal end; and 
measures 2 inches 4 lines in circumference. It retains all the lower qua- 
drumanal characters of the bone, with nearly-the gibbon-like proportions 
as to length and slenderness. The shaft is straight, without the least for- 

rard. bend ; the distal end becomes gradually ‘and almost symmetrically 
expanded, and in an inferior degree to that in the chimpanzee, gorilla, and 
man; the backward projection ‘of the condyles is much less. The linea 
aspera is as little marked as in the gibbons; the neck of the thigh-bone 
is as short, and the head as small, relatively, as in the gibbons; all the 
modifications, in fact, relating to the use of the lower limb in maintaining 
the erect position, and which, in their respective degrees, are found in the 
chimpanzee and gorilla, marking their progressive approaches to the pecu- 
liar human attitude, ave as completely wanting in the fossil femur as in that 
of the recent ungkas and gibbons ; whence we may infer that during the 
miocene period there existed, in the locality haunted by the ape that has 
left its remains at Ei ppelsheim, a richly w ooded tract, in which a gibbon, 
or long-armed ape, of twice the size of those of the Eastern Iudian Archi- 
pelago, enjoy ea a strictly arboreal life. The shape of the shaft of the 


AI8 THE GEOLOGIST. 


supposed humerus of the Dryopithecus, from the miocene of the South of 
France, as figured in M. Lartet’s memoir (Comptes Rendus de l Académie 
des Sciences, Juillet 28, 1856), agrees with that of the Eppelsheim femur.” 

Irish Drirt Fossits.—The rarity of the occurrence of fossils in the 
deposit known as the “ Drift,” which extends far and wide over the low 
country in Ireland, may excuse the following communication. 

For a long time past I have taken advantage of opportunities to search 
these gravels, clays, and sands, in the hope of finding even a fragment of 
a drift fossil, but until lately without success :—In the early part of last 
month, however, I was driving from the town of Sligo southwards, towards 
the micaceous and gneissose range (continuous with the Ox Chain), which 
passes along the southern shore of Lough Gill, and near the foot of these 
mountains having observed a tract of drift hillocks stretching from the 
lake to Ballysodare Bay, I stopped to examine a gravel pit in one of 
them beside the road, situated in the townland of Drumiskybole, and 
about two miles from the sea. It appeared to have been opened at first 
to a depth of about five feet,and a smaller pit was sunk within it to a ver- 
tical depth of some six feet more ; apparently, to obtain fine sand, like that 
on the seashore, which occurred irregularly amongst coarse gravel and 
small boulders of the local rocks; the sand predominating at the bottom 
of the pit. I searched in this sand with no better success than usual, but 
was surprised to find in the vertical side of the pit, within three feet of the 
top, a cluster of mussel shells, together with small, decayed, woody frag- 
ments among the coarser rubble. The place immediately over and about 
the shells bore no trace of having been disturbed, while a couple of feet 
above them the upper edge of the pit had somewhat this appearance. 
The shells lay in irregular positions, rather than upon their sides, in the 
interstices between the stones; some of which, just above them, were 
nearly a foot long. Many of the shells were unbroken, some were closed, 
and they seemed to have shpped downwards into where I found them, 
but there was no trace whatever of a space large enough for them to 
have passed through in the overlying and apparently undisturbed gravel. 
I have them by me now, and they resemble in almost every respect the 
dead shells which might be found along the seashore, except that they are 
not so clean. From the position in which I found them, if they were there 
before the pit was opened, they must have been some seven feet below the 
surface of the hill, and I saw nothing about the place to show that they 
had been artificially introduced since. The rarity of the occurrence only, 
led me to look about the neighbouring fields, where I saw that the ground, 
as is usual in that country, had been manured with seaweed, along with 
which such shells might possibly have been brought from the sea; but I 
found nothing to connect this circumstance with the occurrence of the 
shells in the gravel-pit, and I only mention it to show that it was not 
overlooked, in case there should exist a remote possibility of the shells I 
found having been brought in this way. 

On the other hand, supposing the shells to have been really zm situ, was 
it equally as likely that they would be found in the coarse gravel, ete., as 
in the fine sand beneath P 

The general uncertainty regarding the contents of most drift deposits 
would have prompted me to leave the shells where they were, if it did not 
seem more likely that they would come down and be carried away in some 
of the next few cart-loads of sand taken from the pit, than that they would 
ever be visited by any one so accustomed to finding drift fossils as to be 
able to say whether they were really in place or not. 

I have only to add, that such shells as have been hitherto found in the 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 4.32 


“ drift” in Ireland, so far as I know, belong, like these, to existing species ; 
and amongst the few localities for them of which I have heard, to mention 
the discovery of shells in a fragmentary state in the drift of the Dublin 
Mountains, by Professor Kinahan, and the allusion made by R. Mallett, 
Esq., at the last meeting of the British Association, to the occurrence of 
whelks found by him in a gravel-pit near Moate, county Westmeath. 

I must apologize for the length of this note, and remain, ete., 

Athlone, August 22nd, 1862, A. B. Wynne. 

Footprints 1N Carsonirerous RocKxs.—Sir,—I send you a draw- 
ing of a footprint, which is upon a boulder from one of the rocks of 


YY 


Y 


Ww N 
\\ 


XC 
NS 


aN 
Wy 


WY AN 


YG 


WAN 


ZT 


Fig. 1.—Ground-plan of footprint. 


the carboniferous series. It was found in the drift, which overlies in part 
the Magnesian Limestone 


ae , Sie 
2 


The boulder is a hard sand- 
stone, bearing traces of Stig- Fig. 2.—Vertical cross section. 
maria.—Y ours truly, T. ; i: 

This footprint appears to be an interesting addition to Ichnology. The 
footprints from the Forest of D 
Dean and from near EKdin- 7 YH 
burgh (‘ Siluria,’ 2nd edit. p. ZY 
323), are, we think, the only ZZYy 
known specimens in British 2777/7 
coal-rocks, besides Mr. Bin- a gy C 
ney’s specimen from the Mill- 
stone Grit. In North America there are some still lower in the carboni- 
ferous series.— Ep. Grot. 

Eosaurus Acapranvs.—‘Silliman’s Journal’ for July contains an excel- 
lent description, with figures, of two portions of vertebrae of a new Ena- 


430 THE GEOLOGIST. 


liogaurian from the coal-formation of Nova Scotia, by Mr. O. C. Marsh. 
Reptilian remains from the coal-measures have hitherto been few in num- 
ber, and have been nearly all regarded as Batrachian or Amphibian. 
The present remains were embedded in astratum of argillaceous chocolate- _ 
coloured shale, which forms part of Group XX VI. of the section made of 
the South Joggins coal-formation, in 1852, by Lyell and Dawson, and is 
about 800 feet above the level of the beds which have furnished the Den- 
derpeton and Hylonomus. These remains are those found in 1855 by 
Mr. Marsh, and referred to at page 110 of this journal. 

Great AmeErican Desert. — In their acquisitions from Mexico the 
Americans have acquired not only good, bad, and indifferent lands, but 
they have also acquired the Great Colorado Desert, extending from the 
base of San Bernardino south-westwards, for 180 miles, and having a 
superficial area of 9000 square miles. _ Hxcepting the Colorado the 
whole of that district is without river or lake, and the desert stretches 
off to the horizon on all sides without a vestige of vegetation or life. Its 
surface is ashy and parched; its frame of mountains rise in rugged 
pinnacles of brown rock, bare even of soil. Words are unequal to the 
task of describing its wide expanse, the purity of its air, the silence of its 
night, the brilliance of the stars which shine over it, the glare of the mid- 
day sun, and the violence of storms of dust and sand. Parts are even 
destitute of the latter, and present a surface of smooth, compact. sun- 
baked clay. Other parts are covered with heaps of sand, in depths of 
fifty to eighty feet high. Near the- mountains along the Colorado is a 
perfectly flat terrace paved with pebbles, of nearly uniform size, of por- 
phyry, jasper, quartz, carnelian, and agate, all rounded by the action 
of water, and polished till they glisten by the driven sand. The northern 
part of the desert is thought to be the dry bed of an ancient freshwater 
lake, the beach lines of which are strongly marked; and probably, at 
a comparatively recent period, the waters of the Californian Gulf covered 
all the clay portions of the area, which are still below its level; andif a 
channel were cut through the natural embankment of the Colorado these 
portions, at least, of the desert, would be doubtiess again covered. It is 
even proposed to effect an outflow of the river for the fertilization of this 
vast arid tract by an artificial irrigation. — . 

It is possible that the Colorado district may have been elevated within 
historic or immediately prehistoric times, as earthquakes still agitate that 
region; and in 1852 there were eruptions of mud and hot water in the 
central parts of the valley. 

Fossit Fish 1n Maenestan Limestonr.—There has recently occurred 
in the Magnesian Limestone at Fulwyll Hillsome interesting examples of 
fossil fish: The specimens belong:to three or probably four species of 
Paleoniscus, and to a single species of Acrolepis. Those of the former 
genus are by far more common, and nearly all of them belong to one 
species. Specimens of Acrolepis are exceedingly rare. Three species of 
Paleeoniscus have been described by Mr. J. W. Kirby under the names of 
P. varians, P. latus, and P. Abbsvi. They are all small, the largest not 
being more than four inches in length. Along with the fish have been 
found traces of terrestrial plants. Most of these fossils are found in a bed 
of slaty and laminated limestone, not more than two feet thick, and only a 
short distance from the base of the “‘ Upper Limestone.” The occurrence 
of fish in this subdivision is interesting, as no remains of higher orga- 
nization than mollusca had been previously known to exist in it; nearly 
all the vertebrata of the Permian series of the district being confined to 
the marl-slate near the bottom of the formation. They are, in fact, the 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 


last, as far as is known, of the Paleozoic vertebrates; and those which 
approach nearest in time to the higher forms of life in the succeeding or 
Mesozoic period. 

AnimaL Remains in IrisH Peat Boas.—In the ‘ Archeologia’ (No. 
1776), vol. ii. p. 359, is An Account of some Antique Curiosities found 
in a small Bog near Cullen, co. Tipperary,” by Governor Pownall, which 
consists chiefly of records of gold articles found by various poor people 
there. The following two passages are all that relate to animal remains. 
“In digging away the bog, about 6 feet deep, as far as it extended, there 
was nothing only trunks of different trees all rotten, except the oak and fir, 
which were for the most part found, and some horns, large enough to have 
a circle of three feet in diameter described on each palm.” ‘“ A.D. 1773. 
A man found in digging the bog, a skull with two horns shaped like 
those on Kerry sheep, but longer. No person who has seen it can tell to 
what beast the skull belonged.” 

Mammanian Rematns.—The drift-bed at Aylesford, Kent, has just 
yielded a lower jaw of Mammoth in good preservation, with molars in 
their sockets. Close to it was found a tusk much curved, eight feet long, 
and perfect for the entire length, no doubt belonging to the same indi- 
vidual. It is to be hoped these specimens will be preserved in the Maid- 
stone Museum. 

Mamuora Rematns.—In an extract from the Minute Book of the Cam- 
bridge Philosophical Society, 20th November, 1821, there is a notice of 
fossil organic remains found near Streatham, in the Isle of Ely, by Dr. 
Frederick Thackeray.* He says, ‘‘ The finest examples of organic remains 
characteristic of beds of alluvium rather rest upon the lne of junction 
between clay and gravel than in the gravel itself.” He adds, “A very 
considerable part of the skeleton of a mammoth was lately found in a 
gravel-pit near Chatteris.” 

Fossin Monxrys.—The references to Eopithecus Colchesteri, Owen 
(Macacus eocenus, Owen), from the Kyson sand, in Suffolk, made in my 
article on ‘‘ Fossil Monkeys” (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. pp. 82, 83, 85), are can- 
celled, as well as any other reference to Eocene monkeys.—CHaRrLEs 
Carter BiuaKe. | 

Hrratum.—In my table of the association of human remains with those 
of extinct and recent Mammalia, p. 228, in the column headed ‘‘ Massat,”’ 
crosses should be inserted opposite Felis spelea, Ursus speleus, and Hyena 
spelea ; in the column headed “‘ Valley of the Trent,” the cross opposite 
Cervus megaceros should be erased, and crosses inserted opposite Canis 
lupus and C. familiaris. 'Two extinct species of Mammalia were conse- 
quently found with the Muskham skull, and five existing species. 

Cuartrs Carter Braxr. 

Mammorn Remains.—Mr. A. B. Ruhmond, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, 
records in the ‘ Scientific American’ the discovery of mammoth remains in 
the excavations of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway at French 
Creek, Crawford County. 

Discovertrs oF Laxer-Hapitations.—A statement appears in the 
‘Anzeiger fiir Kunde der Deutschen Vorzeit,’ of Niirnberg, for July, 
that at Miincheberg, at a depth of 18 feet, workmen who were making an 
excavation for a new brewhouse discovered a Pfahlwerk, or Lake-dwelling, 
containing much dung, animal bones, and stags’ horns. Another pilework 
had been discovered in Frauenfeld (Thurgau), which has only been par- 
tially examined. 


* A fossil bone, of what species is not stated. The specimen was presented to the 
Cambridge Museum by Dr. Thackeray.—Ep. Guot., 


432 TIE GEOLOGIST. 


GrotocicaL AGE oF THE AUsTRALIAN Fauna.—Mr. Ludwig Becker, 
in the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute (now the Royal Society) 
of Victoria, contributed a paper on the age of the animal and_ vegetable 
kingdoms of Australia relatively to that of the rest of the world, in which 
Professor Phillips’s belief that the fauna and flora of the Australian con- 
tinent is that of the long-past Oolitic age, is supported, and additional 
proofs given of its correctness ; the result finally arrived at by Mr. Becker 
being, that ‘the existing Australian fauna is the oldest living animal 
kingdom ; that a great number of trees and flowers, planted in Oolitic 
times, are still blooming in Australia; and that the present external form 
of this portion of the earth is the oldest aspect of the earth preserved in 
these times.”” As these opinions have been, to a certain extent, contested 
by Mr. David Page in his eloquent little work on the ‘ World’s Life-Sys- 
tem’ (8vo, Lond., 1861), it is interesting to find them supported by a geo- 
logist resident at the Antipodes. 

SEPARATION OF THE [stu oF Wicut.—Sir,—Might I again trouble you 
with the question about the date of the separation of the Isle of Wight 
from the mainland. 

I have never yet met with any specific statement of the supposed time 
of the occurrence, and should like to know how far science supports the 
curious passage in ‘ Diodorus Siculus,’ which is supposed to allude to that 
island; but where the writer states that in his day, at low tide, the channel 
between the island and the mainland was dry, and passable for carts and 
trafic.—A Constant Reaper, Lymington, Hants. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


The Baron l’Espine, medical inspector of the waters of Aix, in Savoy, 
has communicated a note to the French Academy, “‘ On the Recent Disco- 
very of Lacustrine Dwellings in the Lake of Bourget, near Chambery.” 
The lake is about ten miles long and two broad, and, amongst other 
objects found in the exploration of its depths, he records a fragment of 
coarse pottery formed of black clay, and similar to the Celtic vases in the 
collection of M. Boucher de Perthis. 7 

Excavations have been recently made in the grotto Da Portel, in the 
commune of Coubens (Arriége). The grotto is situated at four hundred 
métres above the sea, and has but one entrance, at the extremity of the 
Bois de la Peyrade. By M. Troyes’ labours here there have been brought 
to light a few fragments of pottery, ancient and modern, and a few 
bones of sheep and dogs near the surface. At a further depth the bcnes 
of bears of three distinct sizes, two of which were at least equal in 
stature to the horse; the third was much smaller, but different from the 
bear of the present day.* The other remains comprised those of dogs, 
wolves, hyznas, pigs, a large kind of ox, reindeer, + and another ruminant, 
probably antelope.{ ‘Three implements of human manufacture have been 


* Query, Ursus speleus, priscus, and arctoideus. 

+ Remains of reindeer have been found in the bone-cave of Aurignac. 

$ Query, the chamois (Antilope rupicapra), remains of which have been found at 
Massat, and in the Pfahlbauten of Switzerland. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 433 


found: one a hatchet, roughly cut out of limestone; the others being ser- 
rated lance-heads of different sizes. No human bones have as yet been 
discovered, though there is reason to believe that the cavern was frequented 
by man from the earliest period. 

_ The great works which have recently been going on at the citadel of 
Antwerp have been made to do good service to geology by M. Dejardin, 
the captain of engineers in charge of them, who has rendered account of 
two admirable sections to the Belgian Academy. One, commencing at the 
old citadel on the south, follows the principal trench, approaches nearly to 
the new citadel on the north, and ends at one of the outworks near the 
Scheldt. The other section begins at the Scheldt above the city, at a place 
called Den Berg, in the prolongation of the principal face of No. 8 Fort at 
Hoboken, and terminating at the right extremity of the Campine canal. 
The deposits shown are— 


1. Vegetable earth. 
Modern Period...... | 2s MSs Ons Sui 
8. Peat. 
Diluvial Period...... 4. Campmian sand. 
Argillaceous sands. 
Grey sand. 
7. Green sand, 


Diestian Period...... 8. Black sand. 


Rupelian Period ... 9. Argillaceous marl. 


Sealdisian Period ... 1 P 


The peat is, M. Dewall thinks, of very modern origin, as it contains 
bones of animals of species still living in the country, and arms and pottery 
belonging to periods not very remote. It contains also undecayed stems 
of vegetables. The Campinian sand is formed of grains of white quartz, 
coated with various substances, chiefly hydrate of iron, and indurated clay. 
It is entirely devoid of shells. At the base of these sands there is a bed 
of quartz pebbles mingled with small teeth of fishes. This is probably a 
band of the ‘‘ Cailloux Ardennais.” At the top of this bed there have been 
found mammoth grinders, and a part of a skull with gigantic horns. 

The Scaldisian deposits consist of an upper yellow argillaceous sand 
(No. 5), containing. teeth of sharks (Squalus, Carcharodon, Oxyrhina, Tii- 
gonodon, Lamna), seal, and ziphius, etce.; ear-bones of Balenoptera; and 
casts of shells in indurated clay or ferruginous sandstone. Below this are 
other argillaceous sands, with considerable quantities of broken shells ; and 
from the list of these species given by various naturalists, this deposit 
would seem to be the equivalent of the Red Crag or Coralline Crag of 
Suffolk. The fossils contained in this deposit are those in the lists nos. 33 
and 34 of M. D’Omalius, in his ‘Géologie de la Belgique.’ Below these 
argillaceous sands is a grey sand, containing the same fossil shells and 
bones. At the base of this bed blocks are met with formed of grains of 
quartz and glauconite, consolidated probably by the dissolution of the 
shells, and having usually as nuclei shells, bones, or small branches of 
trees. The latter are often decomposed, giving rise to cavities in the 
stone. Amongst the fossils of this deposit are the jaws and teeth of the 
Squalodon Antverpiensis. Pecten Lamallii, Terebratula perforans, and a 
species of Spatangus, occur in great numbers. Ditrupa subulata, bryo- 
zoons, Lingula Dumortieri, and Tercbratula Sowerbiana, are also met with. 

The Sable vert of the ‘Systtéme Diestien” next follows. It contains 
hardly any shells or bones, and those met with are of particular species. 
Quantities of oyster-shells are seen, and Jsocardia lunulata is also very 
abundant. Between the green and black sand there is met with at Kiel a 

VOL. V. 3 K 


ABA THE GEOLOGIST. 


bed of ferruginous clay, about a foot thick. The “ black sand” is a very 
important deposit. both on account of the thickness and the number of 
fossils it contains. It is the equivalent of the ‘black crag” or ‘‘ glauco- 
nite crag.” As this deposit has nowhere been penetrated in the excavations, 
its thickness is not known. The chief shell is the Pectunculus variabilis. 

The ‘‘Systéme Rupélien” is solely represented by the ‘‘marne argil- 
leuse,” which is found at Fort no. 8, and in the brickfields of Kdeghem. 
It is a black or bronze-coloured clay, containing concretions of pyrites and 
septariz, often incrusting Nautilus Aturi. It also contains flint-pebbles 
and teeth of Carcharodon heterodon. 


REVIEW. 


Essays and Observations on Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psy- 
chology, and Geology. By John Hunter, F.R.S. Being his Posthu- 
mous Papers on those subjects, arranged and revised, with Notes, by 
Richard Owen, F.R.S., D.C.L., Superintendent of the Natural His- 
tory Department, British Museum, etc. ete. John Van Voorst. 


The aphorism of Niebuhr, that “he who calls what has vanished back 
again into being, enjoys a bliss like that of creating,’ which has been 
quoted by almost every geologist from Lyell downwards, is nowhere more 
applicable than to the discovery and safe transmission to the thinking 
scientific men of the present day of the long-lost Hunterian manuscripts, 
and especially on that on Geology, to which we shall draw our readers’ 
attention. — 

John Hunter, after communicating to the Royal Society of London, in 
1793, his paper “on the Fossil Bones presented to that Society by His 
Most Serene Highness the Margrave of Anspach”’ (‘ Philosophical Trans- 
actions,’ vol. lxxxiv. 1794), followed up the subject by a second memoir, 
summing up the conclusions which he had deduced fromhis study of ‘‘ Hx- 
traneous Fossils” in general. This manuscript he communicated to the 
Royal Society, with the following result :— 

“The attention of the Secretaries or Council of the Royal Society had 
been called, by some of the Fellows, to the expressions in the first paper, 
on the ‘thousands of years’ required for such and such geological phe- 
nomena; and, in the second memoir, the Secretaries found that a chrono- 
logy of the earth, widely different from the usually accepted one, was more 
directly and emphatically affirmed by the author, as essential to the ra- 
tional comprehension of the phenomena he treated of, while, at the same 
time, the adequacy of the chief or sole geological dynamic at that time 
recognised, viz. the Mosaic Deluge, to account for the presence of marine 
fossils on land, was called in question. Considerations for the repute and 
interests of the author himself may have swayed his advisers in the recom- 
mendation to him to submit the manuscript to a geological friend, before 
finally sending it in for formal acceptance and perusal before the Society. 
Major Rennell, author of some papers in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ on 
‘Tides and Currents,’ and other geographical subjects, undertook the deli- 
cate task of submitting to Hunter the misgivings of the authorities mainly 
responsible for the publications of the Royal Society. He did it in these 
words: ‘ This leads me to remark that, in page 3, you have used the term 


KhEVIEW. 435 


‘many thousand centuries,’ which brings us almost to the yogues of the 
Hindoos. Now, although I have no quarrel with any opinions relating to 
the antiquity of the globe, yet there are a description of persons very nu- 
merous and very respectable in every point but their pardonable supersti- 
tions, who will dislike any mention of a specific period that ascends beyond 
6000 years: I would, therefore, with submission, qualify the expression by 
many thousand years, instead of centuries. Hunter would not modify 
his statements, and he withdrew the paper.” 

An edition of this paper was hurriedly printed by the Council of the 
Royal College of Surgeons in December, 1859: the more important pas- 
sages are inserted in the work before us, in which Professor Owen says— 

“Some may wish that the world had never known that Hunter thought so 
differently on some subjects from what they believed, and would have de- 
sired, him to think. But he has chosen to leave a record of his thoughts, 
and, under the circumstances in which that record has come into my hands, 
JI have felt myself bound to add it to the common intellectual property of 
mankind.” 

The great geological principle, the coevality of the fossils with the 
mineral strata in which they are found, which some geologists have de- 
nied, was formally asserted by Hunter. He said— 

“ Finding upon land more parts of marine than terrestrial animals pre- 
served, and at considerable depth, it naturally leads to the idea of sea- 
animals at least having undergone this process at the bottom of the sea; 
and if so, then as that [stratum] i in which they are found is now land, and 
as we find parts of land-animals and vegetables preserved nearly in the 
same manner, it leads us into a more extensive investigation of the per- 

manency of the situation of the waters ; and in this inquiry we shall find 
- that wherever an extraneous fossil is enclosed or imbedded, the surround- 
ing native matrix was accumulated, disposed, or formed into that mass at 
the same time.”’ 

Professor Owen remarks on this— 

“I do not find this proposition so definitely laid down in geological 
writers prior to Hunter; although it was evidently appreciated in a certain 
degree, and with reference to particular strata, by some of Hunter’s pre- 
decessors. 

“The exceptions to the rule arise from the formation of one stratum out 
of the ruins of a preceding fossiliferous stratum, when the fossils of that 
older stratum become, together with their matrix, a part of the newer one, 
with which, however, those fossils are far from being coeval in respect of 
the period when they actually became fossil. Petrified bones of Plesio- 
saurus, ¢. g., have been transmitted to me, together with unpetrified bones 
of the beaver, from the comparatively recent ‘till’ of Cambridgeshire, the 
plesiosaurian remains having been washed out of the subjacent gault, when 
the sea finally retired from the uprising land. Such ‘derivative’ fossils 
were nevertheless actually enclosed or imbedded in the newer tertiary 
matrix when it ‘was disposed or formed into the mass,’ now called ‘ till.’ 
The exceptions of such derivative fossils are, however, comparatively rare, 
and do not affect the conclusions, as to the relativ eage ofa stratum, al flor ded 
by its obviously and much more abundant proper organic remains.’ 

* We find,” Hunter proceeds to say, ‘the remains of sea-animals in 
every kind of substance excepting granite. Ai find wood, bones of sea 
animals, bones of land-animals, in freestone, gravel, clay, marl, loam, and 
peat.” 

Professor Owen remarks — 

“ With regard to the alterations of climate which Hunter deduced from 


aes 


436 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the supposed identification of some of his fossils with those of recent ani- 
mals, he was induced to refer the circumstance to ‘a change in the situa- 
tion of this globe respecting the sun, —in other words, to a ‘ change in the 
ecliptic.’ Here he departs from his principle of explaining the past phe- 
nomena by present causes. Newton long since declared, in reference to a 
similar supposition borrowed by Burnet from an Italian author, Alles- 
sandro degli Allessandri, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, that 
‘there was every presumption in astronomy against any former change in 
the inclination of the earth’s axis ;’ and Laplace has since strengthened the 
arguments of Newton, against the probability of any former revolution of 
this kind. 

“Tt may be a question, however, whether the mental stock now to be 
dealt with by the geologist does not yield a truer appreciation of the dura- 
tion of time in which the movements of the stellar and solar systems have 
gone on, than could be afforded by the observations and calculations of 
the astronomer in the times of Newton and Laplace: whether the in- 
adequacy of the analogy, based by Cuvier on the knowledge of the cha- 
racters of a species during a period of 3000 years, of such seeming fixity of 
specific characters, to the effects of influences on generations succeeding 
each other during 300,000 years, may not be applicable to the case of New- 
ton, considering the results of his observations and calculations under a 
preoccupation of the mind by the theological age-of the world. 

“« Hunter’s recourse to ‘a change in the ecliptic, as well as to ‘some at- 
tractive external principle producing a great and permanent tide,’ such as 
Whiston’s comet, e.g., was however the consequence of a misconception 
or misinterpretation of the phenomena which those hypothetical causes 
were invoked to explain. 

“Hunter believed, for example, that the elephants’ remains found in 
northern and temperate latitudes belonged to the same species, or at most 
to a variety of the same species of elephant, as that which now lives in 
tropical regions. Its specific distinction from the existing tropical ele- 
phants was then as little understood as the specific distinction of the 
African from the Asiatic elephants. 

“The moment that zoology and comparative anatomy had made such 
progress as to discern constant differences interpreted as specific distine- 
tions, and to apply the same principle to the differentiation of the fossil 
elephant of northern regions from either of the existing tropical kinds, the 
necessity for calling in a cataclysm, either through a hypothetical shift in 
the ecliptic, or the attraction of the ocean upon the continents by a comet, 
no longer existed.” 

Hunter’s observations on the inadequacy of a pre-supposed Mosaic 
deluge to account for the manifold evidences of aqueous action which geo- 
logy has revealed to us, we must quote :— 

‘“‘ History gives us no determined account of this change of the waters ; 
but as the Sacred History mentions the whole surface of the earth having 
been deluged with water, the natural historians have laid hold of this, and 
have conceived that it would account for the whole. Forty days’ water 
overflowing the dry land could not have brought such quantities of sea- 
productions on its surface; nor can we suppose thence, taking all possible 
circumstances into consideration, that it remained long on the whole sur- 
face of the earth; therefore there was no time for their being fossilized ; 
they could only have been left, and exposed on the surface. But it would 
appear that the sea has more than once made its incursions on the same 
place; for the mixture of land- and sea-productions now found on the land 
is a proof of at least two changes having taken place.” 


REVIEW. 437 


Professor Owen, addressing his audience at the College of Surgeons on 
March 10th, 1855, on this subject, said,— 

“The close similarity, in the clear and philosophical views and words of 
Fracastoro, to those of Hunter (who we may safely believe had never read, 
or probably heard of the Italian author), are very striking. I need not 
trespass on your time by recounting the hundredfold additional and diver- 
sified testimony, which God, in his wisdom, has suffered to be made mani- 
fest, and to be irresistible in producing conviction according to the means 
of appreciating truth with which He has been pleased to endow the human 
understanding, in demonstrating the utter inadequacy of any of the brief 
and transient traditional deluges to account for observed geological and 
paleontological phenomena. 

“‘ As the astronomer in teaching his science gives the results of the ex- 
ercise of those faculties of observation, comparison, and calculation which 
have been given to him for the purpose of making known the creative 
operations in infinite space, without enlisting any aid or element of science 
from the records of Creation in the sacred history of the Jews, so ought 
the naturalist or geologist equally to abstain from any foregone conclusion 
as to mode or time of operation which he might believe himself able to 
derive from divine teachings given for another end. He ought to confine 
himself to the deductions which rest on observation and experiment, and 
to teach those natural truths only which he has been privileged to establish 
by the exercise of the talents entrusted to him for the discovery of the 
creative operations, or the power of God, in the immeasurable periods of 
the past. 

os W e find in the remarkable essay recovered from his posthumous 
manuscripts some instances of the results of the special application of 
those principles to particular geological phenomena. 

“Take those which must have most frequently presented themselves to 
his observation, as e. g. in the valley of the Thames, and note the broad 
interpretation that he gives of the facts so observed. ‘ Probably,’ he 
writes, ‘the whole flat tract of the river Thames, between its lateral hills, 
was an arm of the sea; and as the German Ocean became shallower, it 
was gradually reduced to a river: and the composition of this tract of 
land, for an immense depth, would show it, viz. a gravel, a sand, and a 
clay, with fossil shells in the clay 200 or 300 feet deep, all deposited when 
it was an arm of the sea, and above which are found the bones of land- 
animals, where it has been shallow.’ ’—P. xv. 

Owen goes on to say,— 

** Hunter does not, indeed, specify the nature of the shells: they are, 
however, of a kind that could leave no doubt on his mind of their marine 
- character. With his fossil specimen of Strombus coronatus, Dfr., he has 
placed the recent Sivombus accipitrinus from the South American seas. 
He had also obtained fostellaria macroptera, Lam., from the eocene 
tertiary at Hordwell, Hants. ; Voluta nodosa, Sby., from the London clay ; 
Mitra elongata, Lam., from the eocene at Grignon, near Paris ; the gigantic 
Cerithium, from the same formation and locality ; the Crassatella tumida, 
Dh., from Nummulitic strata of the Swiss Alps; and the great Nautilus 
imperialis from Sheppey, so like the pearly Nautilus from the Indian 
seas. All these shells, selected from a hundred other specimens in Hunter’s 
cabinet, must have presented to their collector unmistakeable features of 
the marine origin of the strata containing them. 

“ Subsequent researches, aided by the refined conchology of modern 
science, have established the truth of Hunter’s conclusion. 

* All the shells of the London clay which forms the bottom of the tract 


438 THE GEOLOGIST. 


through which the major part of the Thames flows, are of marine species, 
and most of them extinct. In the superficial gravel have been found 
fluviatile shells, most of them of recent species, with the remains of ele- 
phant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other large terrestrial quadrupeds.”’ 

As regards earthquakes, as a geological dynamic, Hunter states— 

“ T formerly observed that earthquakes very probably raised islands; 
that on the surface of such there would be found shells, and in vast quan- 
tity, recent, dead, and fossilized... . This upraising of the bottom of the 
sea above the surface of the water, will also raise up along with it all the 
shell-fish that lay on the surface of the bottom, as also dead shells, and in 
the substance of the earth all the deeper-seated substances imbedded or 
enclosed in stone, chalk, clay, etce., which I have said constitutes the true 
fossil: ‘This appears to be the state of the case on and in the Island 
of Ascension; the whole surface of this island is covered with shells, and 
some so perfect as to have their ligaments still adhering. There is, besides, 
a vast quantity of lava, and other volcanic matter, all of which shows it 
most probably arose in this way ; because such recent alteration in the sea, 
so as to have exposed so much of its bottom, and so recently as to have the 
animal part of the shell still adhering, and the very name umplies its rise. 
I suspect that many of those shells found on land near the surface, on the 
tops of mountains, have been exposed in this way.’—P. xlvi. 

Owen remarks on the ridiculous derivation of the name of the island :— 

«This is very ingenious; but the superstitious Spaniard had little 
thought of the geological causes. of the island, when he discovered it on 
the evening of ‘ Ascension Day.’”’ 

Poor Joao de Nova Galego little expected that he should be thus mis- 
quoted in the eighteenth century. 

With respect to the conditions under which mammalian remains are 
imbedded in comparatively recent geological deposits, Hunter wrote— 

“In peat, one-could conceive that the trees had only to fall, and after- 
wards to sink down into it; but I believe no such wood grows in peat, 
therefore they must. have been brought there, and that only by water; or 
[they may have] grown there prior to the formation of peat. But the 
animals which could come there had only to die on the surface, and in time 
they would.also sink deeper and deeper into it ; and this I imagine might 
be the case with the beavers in this country, whose bones are found in the 
peat-mosses in Berkshire.. Or, as peat is supposed to grow, we can con- 
ceive it rising igher and higher above such substance. 

“ Bones are also found in gravel, clay, marl, loam, etc.; and as we have 
found the sea-horse bones | A/ppopotamus | in gravel, etc. in this country, 
I am inclined to think that such situations have been shores or arms of the 
sea, at last constituting mouths of rivers, where the animals have been 
accidentally swept away by floods, accidentally drowned, etc., where gravel, 
clay, etc. have subsided, as before deseribed ; for it gives more the idea of 
being a consequence of the sea leaving the land than an effect produced by 
a continuance of the sea in the part, according to our idea of the formation 
of the true fossil. But the difficulty-is to apply this to the bones of some 
animals that do not now exist in the same countries where they are found ; 
as a [to] the bones of animals that probably do not now exist in any 
country. 

“This looks like a destruction of the whole species of such animals at 
the time [during] which [those] animals were probably confined to such 
countries; and which might also be the case with the beaver in this 
country ; and it being a more universal animal, its species is preserved in 
other parts. The same observations apply to the sea-horse | Hippopota- 
mus], as also to the elephant.” .... 


REVIEW. 439 


“Thus we have in many parts of this island the bones of unknown 
animals, such as a large species of deer [ Megaceros], as also the core of the 
horns, and bones of some very large animals of the bull kind” [ Bison pris- 
cus, Bos primigentus |. 

With respect to the nature of the animals imbedded in various strata,— 

“We may observe that the amphibia, and such as inhabit both the sea 
and land, as all of the Phoca-tribe, white bear, cte.,likewise sea-fowl, par- 
take of the before-mentioned mode of fossilization, by dying in the sea ; 
for wherever there has been a shore, there we shall find the amphibia; as 
also many of the fowl-iribe, called sea-fowl, which feed in the water, which 
may die in the sea near the shore, or be brought down in the rivers, will be 
carried into the sea, and be fossilizedaccording to the fore-mentioned method, 
and will be found along with the sea productions. But they will also par- 
take of the second situation, as in large valleys leading to the sea, which 
were formerly arms of the sea:or inlets, which are to be considered as 
having been moving shores, as the sea gradually leaves the land, leaving 
materials it had robbed higher land of, raising the bottom, or forming 
a new surface, lessening the depth of water at these places, which 
renders it slower and slower in its motion, as before described, at last 
becoming a river. Such new land will bury in it such productions, 
whether of sea or land, but most of those common to both, as shall either 
die in it, or being brought into it, constituting chiefly such animals that 
inhabit both land and water, as also amphibia, with land animals that 
came there, or vegetables that were brought there, making a heteroge- 
neous mixture. And I believe it may be observed in general, that the 
fossil bones of Jand-animals or birds are commonly found in such de- 
posited materials, as gravel, sand, clay,” etc.—P. xxxvii. 

‘“‘ But the preservation of vegetables and land-animals is most probably 
not confined to such situations alone. A change in the situation of the sea 
most probably has been a cause in the production of such fossils, which 
constitutes a third situation of the production of fossils. Therefore, to 
preserve vegetables, bones of land-animals, and many birds, one of two 
circumstances must have taken place: first, a change of the situation of the 
sea upon the land where such productions are. But in [regard to] what 
may be called ‘land-birds,’ there will be a few of them [found fossil] ; 
for hardly any change in the land or sea can take place but what they 
can follow,—the new rising land, as it were, growing out of the waters, 
and abandoning the old, which now becomes covered with the waters.”— 
P. Xxxviil. 

The tenor of the above observations may be contrasted with those made 
in Lyell’s‘ Principles of Geology,’ on which the conclusions of modern geo- 
logists have been founded. Hunter, after hypothetically suggesting that 
some fossil species may be now extinct, says,— 

** How they became extinct is not easily accounted for; for although we 
must suppose that the species of deer [ Megaceros] to which belonged the 
bones and horns now found in the island of Great Britain, more particu- 
larly in Scotland, and still more in Ireland, is lost, yet we have reason to 
believe they were coeval with the elephant ; for I have the lower jaw and 
tooth of an elephant that were dug up at Ougle [Oundle], in Northamp- 
tonshire, twelve feet below the surface, in a strong blue clay ; and with it, 
one of the horns of the large deer. ”’—P. viii. 

This opinion of the antiquity of the Megaceros has been confirmed by 
later observations: in Ireland its remains occur in the shell-marl under- 
lying the turbary. 

Hunter proceeds to express his thoughts on the nature of fossil organic 


44.0 TITE GEOLOGIST. 


remains, as follows:—“ No definition can be given that will suit every 
fossil, except simply that which strikes the eye, which in‘a general way 
is pretty correct. For as extraneous fossils have been and can be matched 
by such substances in a recent state, and probably the animals most [fre- 
quently}, they may in a general way be distinguished ; and this arises 
from the part in a fossil state having been more or less deprived of the 
parts belonging to the,recent, which is the animal part ; and which is what 
principally gives colour to them: thus fossil shells have none. of those 
bright colours found in the recent; yet some shells retain something of 
their original colour, though the animal part is dissolved into a kind of 
mucus, which would make us conceive that both the animal and earthy 
parts were so disposed as to reflect nearly the same colours, but the ani- 
mal part is by much the brightest: for it is not simply the state in which 
the substance is that constitutes a fossil; but it is the state, with the 
mode in which it was brought to that state, that commonly constitutes a 
fossil ; for many things might be called an ‘ extraneous fossil’ if considered 
abstractedly from the manner of their being brought to that state; [and 
so considered] every churchyard would produce fossils.” —P. xxiv. 

“To establish the principles of fossils, I shall set it down first as a prin- 
ciple, that no animal substance can of itself constitute, or be turned into, 
a fossil; it can only be changed for a fossil.” The acute distinction 
drawn between ‘turned into’ and ‘ changed for,’ —a distinction which theo- 
logians and metaphysicians have long rightly drawn, but which many of 
our learners in paleontology find it hard to perceive,—was clearly present 
to the mind of John Hunter. 

With respect to the other portions of the work before us, not imme- 
diately of a geological nature, extending over two thick octavo volumes, 
we must be silent. We must coincide with Professor Owen that the text 
“‘is here and there obscure enough to test the acumen of a skilled logician 
to decipher the sense. But it is always a matter of interest to endeavour 
to make out the meaning of a deep and original thinker; and different 
minds, unbiassed by any suggestion of the editor, may be induced to give 
their views of Hunter’s meaning, and their opinions of his conclusions. It 
may be interesting also to some, standing on the vantage ground of seventy 
years’ progress, to know what such a self-taught philosopher did not know 
on the subjects he grappled with: and a small proportion of the present 
writings of Hunter may chiefly serve to illustrate his mental peculiarities 
and shortcomings. 

“To those who are conversant with Hunter’s style, other testimony of 
the authenticity of the present writings will be superfluous: and it has 
seemed to the editor that the requirements of science would be best met 
by presenting these writings ‘ pure and simple,’ as Hunter left them.” 

We have only to say that the sole qualified person in England to de- 
velope the thoughts of the great past English anatomist and paleontologist 
was the Biologist who had so long occupied the Hunterian chair at the 
Royal College of Surgeons, and who has so conscientiously and ably per- 
formed a difficult and laborious task in publishing the lost Hunterian 
manuscripts. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


DECEMBER 1862. 


BOS FRONTOSUS. 


By the side of a cast of the large-fronted ox of Scandinavia, in the 
case of fossil Bovide in the British Museum, is a specimen found in 
Bawdsey Bog, near Felixstow, in Suffolk, referred to that same species 
—the only example mecondedt: in England, if exhibition in the cases of 
our national institution be a record, for it has been nowhere figured 
or described. 

That the determination of the species is correct there can be little 
doubt, as the specimen was seen and examined by Professor Nilsson 
on his late visit to this country, and the correctness of the determi- 
nation was verified by him. It is to this, one of the most in- 
teresting but least known species, that we now wish to draw atten- 
tion. It is interesting because it was probably a species of higher 
antiquity that lived on to be cowval with the early human races 
whose relics are found in the deposits of that remarkable border-land 
between the last geological ages of the Prehuman era and the oblite- 
rated first chapters of Human History. 

In the ages which elapsed immediately previous to the deposition 
of the glacial drift, and subsequently to that period, extending down 
even to the modern historical era, seven species of fossil Bovide 
ranged the pastures of England, as will be more clearly seen in the 
annexed table :— 


eis Pliocene} Post- Glacial Cave Hsetee 
Distribution of Bovide in Great Britain. Fresh- |pliocene| >) ,:¢. De- rical 
water. | Marl. posits. | Period. 
Bos giganteus s. antiquus, Owen . rei x ae oe 
Bos primigenius, Bojanus . . . . bw x P 
Ben aromosus, Nilsson  . 1. . . fe x a 
Bos longifrons, (OU eee ee ak x ‘. 4 x 
Bison priscus, (0) i Se ae x ; oa 
ar miner, Owen... sie sk _ ae fe x 


Bubalus moschatus, Owen. . . . . se Oa x 


VOL. V. oL 


4.4.2 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The species Bos frontosus was founded by Nilsson, and is charac- 
terized by the great size, length, and breadth of the forehead, and 
the prominent elevation between the horns, somewhat similar to that 
in the subgenus Bibos, or the Gours, Gayals, and Bantingers of 
Southern Asia. Its superiority of size, and the general robustness 
of the structure, sufficiently differentiate it from Bos longifrons ; 
whilst the direction of the horns, which curve moderately downwards, 
and the general proportions of the forehead, prevent confusion with 
Bos primigenius or Bos giganteus. 

Comparison of the specimen with the cast of the typical Bos fron- 
tosus presented by Professor Nilsson, indicates some minor points of 
difference. Thus, Mr. Davies points out that the space between the 
orbits and the attachment of the horn-cores is much longer in the 
cast than in the Suffolk specimen. The elevation between the horns 
is also higher, and the breadth between the orbits greater in the 
cast. 3 

In Switzerland, at the present day, a small and spotted variety of 
ox is found, which M. Riitimeyer considers to be descended from the 
Bos frontosus. -We are not aware that any one has yet worked out 
the points of distinction between the existing breeds of oxen in 
England and Scandinavia, and the gigantic large-fronted ox whose 
remains have been figured by Nilsson; but the first British speci- 
men is that of which we give a portrait in Plate XV. 

Our impression, however, is that a closer inspection of the semi- 
fossilized, or rather unfossilized remains of Bovide, which are so com- 
monly turned up in the superficial deposits all over England, and 
which are now heedlessly neglected, will be found to yield more spe- 
cimens of this noble ox. | 

The gigantic ox which was found in the Hereynian forests of Ger- 
many, of whom Cesar speaks (De Bello Gallico, hb. 6: xxvii.) : “Ter- 
tium est genus eorum, qui Uri appellantur. Ji sunt magnitudine 
paullo infra Elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri. ... Am- 
plitudo cornuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum boum 
cornibus differt,’’ has been generally considered to be Bos primige- 
nius. It may possibly be so; but Cesar, who was accustomed to the 
long-horned oxen of the Romagna, would hardly have noticed a dif- 
ference between them and the equally long-horned primigenius. The 
difference, however, between the horns of B. frontosus and the Italian 
ox would have struck him at once. | 7 

It would not be fair of me to close this paper without acknow- 
ledging that my attention was directed to this specimen by my friend 
Mr. Carter Blake. 


aN 


BOS FRONTOSUS (Nilsson). 


From a Pleistocene deposit at Bawdsey Bog, near Felixstow. 


In the National Collection, British Museum. 


S. J. Mackie del. 


PLATE XV, 


Suffolk. 


4.43 


PALEHONTOLOGICAL NOTES. 
By Tuomas Davinson, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
I. ON SCOTTISH JURASSIC BRACHIOPODA. 


So little is known of Scottish Jurassic Brachiopoda, that any addi- 
tional information cannot fail to prove interesting. Professor Nicol 
wrote me on the 16th of April, 186u, that out of a pretty large collec- 
tion of the fossils of this period sent up to the Aberdeen meeting of 
the British Association, he found only two species and specimens of 
Brachiopoda, and both imperfect. That in Sunderland they are most 
common in the Dunrobin Reefs (by some thought to be Oxford clay, 
by others Lias), but that the stone is so friable, that the specimens 
fall to pieces almost at the slightest touch; and that in the sandstone 
at Braambury Hill, are casts of a large shell, like Zerebratula per- 
ovalis, but often crushed and distorted. 

In 1850, the late A. Robertson, of Elgin, sent me two beautifully 
preserved Rhynchonelle (R. lacunosa ?), from Dunrobin, and which 
will be found figured and described in my monograph; and about 
the same period, the late Hugh Miller sent me a specimen of 7’. numis- 
malis, from the Lias of Shendwick, and another of 2hynchonella 
Bouchardii, from the Lias of Cromarty. Mr. Geikie recorded like- 
wise a Lthynchonella tetrahedra, from the Middle Lias of the island 
of Pabba. 

It would result from the above statement, that about six species of 
Brachiopoda have, up to the present period, been mentioned as 
having been found in Scottish Jurassic strata. 

On the 9th of April, 1860, Captain E. J. Bedford, R.N., informed 
me that while surveying the island of Mull, he discovered a great 
number of fossils in the Middle Lias of Caisaig Bay; these he kindly 
forwarded for my examination, and | found among many other Mol- 
lusea, eight or nine species of Brachiopoda, two of which being new 
to Scotland, and one even so to Great Britain. 

I was informed, at the same time, that these fossils had been all cut 
out of a hardened kind of black clay, uncovered at low water; that 
this clay lay in lamine, which he lifted up with a little bar, and in 
which he found all the specimens sent up, with the exception of 
Terebratula punetata and some other species of Mollusca, which he 
obtained from hard masses of limestone scattered about the shore. 

The following is a list of the Mollusca from the Middle Lias of 
the island of Mull, which Mr. Etheridge and myself were able to 
determine :— 


Terebratula punctata. Rhynchonella rimosa. 
Waldheimia numismalis. Rhynchonella variabilis. 
Spiriferina rostrata. Rhynchonella (another species ?). 
Spiriferinar Waleotti. Ostrea ? 

Spiriferina oxyptera. Avicula ineequivalvis, 


Rhynchonella tetrahedra. Modiola Hillana, 


AAA, THE GEOLOGIST. 


Lima Hermannia. Gresslya anglica. 
Plicatula spinosa. Arca truncata. 

Lima acuticosta. Arca Buchmanni. 
Pecten priscus. Arca elongata. 

Pecten vellatus. Leda rostralis. 
Gryphea cymbium. Astarte Psilonoti ? 
Grypheea obliqua. Modiola scalprum. 
Pholadomya ambigua. Pinna folium. 
Pholadomya decorata. Pinna tetragona. 
Cardium cucullatum (Opis). Trochus anglicus. 
Pleuromya scotica. Pleurotomaria ? 
Pleuromya unionides. Ammonites raricostatus. 
Lima acuticosta. Ammonites Jamesonil. 
Hippopodium ponderosum (young). Belemnites leevigata, var. clavatus. 


Unicardium eardioides. 


Since the discovery of the above-named fossils by Captain Bedford, 
Mr. J. Thomson, of Glasgow, has visited the island of Pabba, where he 
found 7. punctata, Sp. Walcotti, th. tetrahedra, and another species, 
which I was unable to determine. He also found in the Bay of 
Luussay, four miles from Bradford, in the island of Skye, some ex- 
amples of Sp. Walcotte. 


Scottish Jurassic Brachiopoda. 


1. SpretreRina rostrata, Schloth. sp. 1822, pl. xxiv. fig. 1; Dav. 
Mon. p. 20, pl. 2, figs. 1-21; pl. 3, fig. 1. Of this species, Captain 
Bedford found one perfectly characterized specimen in the Bay of 
Caisaig, Mull. 


2, Sprrirertna Watcortt, Sow. 1823, pl. xxiv. figs. 2,3; Dav. Mon. 
p. 29, pl. 3, figs. 2, 3. 


This is a common form in Scottish liassic deposits, although rarely found perfect. It was 
found by Captain Bedford in the Bay of Caisaig, Mull. Mr. J. Thomson obtained it was 
also from the Middle Lias in the Bay of Lussay, four miles: from Bradford, in the island 
of Skye, and again, from the island of Pabba. It varies-considerably in size and in the 
number of its ribs, but is entirely similar to those found in England. 


3. SPIRIFERINA OxYPTERA, Buv. 1848, pl. xxiv. fig. 4. Spirifer 
oxypterus (Buvignier), Mém. de la Soe. Philom. de Verdun, tom. ii. 
p. 14, pl. 8, fig. 8; Géol. des Ardennes, p. 584, pl. 5, fig. 5; Dav. 
Annals and Mag. of Nat. Fist. lii. p. 264 , pl. 15 figs. 5 56-1; 1852. 


Shell variable in shape, transverse and obscurely subrhomboidal ; es sein beak 
more or less produced and incurved; hinge-line as long as the greatest width of the 
shell ; cardinal angles tapering into acute points ; area subtriangular and of moderate width ; 
fissure partly arched over by a pseudo-deltidium. In the dorsal valve the mesial fold is 
formed of a single rib, to which corresponds a sinus in the ventral one. Each valve is, 
in addition, ornamented with from eight to twelve simple ribs, and the surface, besides 
being punctured, is covered with delicate spines. Dimensions variable. Our Scottish 
example measured nine lines in length by sixteen in width. 

This species is here mentioned for the first time as a British fossil, and was discovered 
by Captain Bedford in the Bay of Caisaig, island of Mull. The Scottish specimen above 
described, agrees otherwise with M. Buvignier’s type. 


4. TEREBRATULA PUNCTATA, Sow. 1843, pl. xxiv. figs..6, 7; Dav. 
Mon. p. 45, pl. 6, figs. t-6. 


This isa common shell in the Middle Lias of the Bay of Caisaig, island of Mull, 


PLATE XXIV, 


Vincent Brooks, imp. 


lavidson,de 


LD 


PODA. 


e) 


{ 


5, AND TERTIARY BRACHI 


re, ERS) 


“ 


y, 


Themas Davitt: 


wed br 


( Cesc 


DAVIDSON—PALHONTOLOGICAL NOTES. 44.5 


where it has been collected by Captain Bedford; Mr. J. Thomson found it in the island 
of Pabba; and Professor Nicol states to have fonnd it near Dunrobin. The Scottish 
specimens are exactly similar to those which occur in England, 

5. TEREBRATULA PEROVALIS, Suw. 1825, pl. xxiv. fig. 8; Dav. Mon. 
p- 51, pl. 10, figs. 1-6. 


Specimens agreeing with our Hnglish example have been found by Professor Nicol, in 
the Inferior Oolite of Braambury Hill, Brora. The specimen here figured belongs to 
Marischal College, Aberdeen. Other examples have been procured near Elgin, by the 
Rey. J. Morrison. 

6. WALDHEIMIA NUMISMALIS, Lamarck, 1819, pl. xxiv. fig.5; Dav. 
Mon. p. 36, pl. 5. figs. 4-9. 


Specimens exactly similar to those we find in the Middle Lias of England, have been 
collected in the Bay of Caisaig, by Captain Bedford. It was also found by the late Hugh 
Miller, in the Lias of Shendwick, in Scotland. 

7. RaYNCHONELLA ee Sow. sp. 1812, pl. xxiv. fig. 12; 
Dav. Mon. p. 93, pl. 18, figs. 5 


This species is common in the Middle a of the Bay of Caisaig, where it has been 
found by Captain Bedford. Mr. Geikie found it, and Mr. J. Thomson obtained it from 
the island of Pabba, and from whence it is alluded to by Dr. Wright, in his notes on the 
fossils collected by Mr. Geikie from the Lias of the isles of Pabba, Scalpa, and Skye. 
Proce. of the Geol. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 26, 1808. 

8. Ruyncnonenta Boucuarptit, Dav. 1852, pl. xxiv. fig. 9; Dav. 
Mon. p. 82, pl. 15, figs. 3-5. 

This species was found by the late Hugh Miller in the Lias of Cromarty, and agrees 
exactly with those found near [/minster, in England. 

9. RayNcHONELLA RIMOSA, De Buch. 1843, pl. xxiv. PY. Lh Dae. 
Mon. p. 70, pl. 14, fig. 6. 


Specimens agreeing in every particular with those of England have been found by 
Captain Bedford in the Middle Lias of the Bay of Caisaig. It has also been found in 
the island of Pabba, by Mr. J. Thomson. 

10. RHYNCHONELLA VARIABILIS, Schloth, 1813, pl. xxiv. fig. 10; 
Dav. Mon. p. 78, pl. 16, fig. 5. 


Oue of two small specimens, agreeing with some English individuals of this variable 
species, have been found by Captain Bedford, in the Middle Lias of the Bay of Caisaig, 
aud by Mr. Nicol, at Loch Aline, Sound of Mull. 

11. Ruyncowonenra Ltacunosa, Schloth ? 1813, pl. xxiv. fig. 13; 
Dav. Mon. p. 96, pl. 16, figs. 18, 14. 

Several specimens were obtained by the late Mr. Robertson, in Oxford clay ? (perhaps 
Lias ?), at Dunrobin. 

In addition to these, eleven undeterminable fragments of another Rhynchonella were 
found by Captain Bedford, in the Bay of Caisaig. 

Such is the scanty information I am able to communicate with re- 
ference to Scottish Jurassic Brachiopoda, and I should feel much 
obliged to any Scottish geologist who could forward to me any addi- 
tional information. 


II. SCOTTISH CRETACEOUS BRACHIOPODA. 


For some years past I have endeavoured, with but very indifferent 
success, to assemble data concerning the eretaceous Br achiopoda of 
Scotland. 


446 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Mr. W. Ferguson, F.G.S., noticed the occurrence of chalk-flints 
and greensand in Aberdeenshire, Proc. Glasgow Phil. Soc. in. p. 33, 
1849, and in the Phil. Mag., May, 1850. Mr. Salter subsequently 
referred to the same subject in the twelfth volume of the Quarterly 
Journal of the Geol. Soc. p. 390, 1856, and in the same work for 
1857; and we find that the following four species are recorded as 
having been found in Scotland :—Crania striata, Kingena lima, 
Rh. Mantelliana, Rh. compressa. I have not however been able to 
examine specimens of these species. Having communicated with 
Professor Nicol upon the subject, he kindly forwarded for my in- 
spection specimens of four others, which had been found by Mr. 
Murray, of Aberdeen, viz. :— 


1. TEREBRATULINA CARNEA, Sow., pl. xxiv. fig. 14. 
Internal flint-casts in flint nodules, from Curden, Aberdeenshire. 


2. TERHBRATULINA STRIATA, Wahlenb., pl. xxiv. fig. 15. 
Also in flint-casts, same locality. 


3. RHYNCHONELLA PLICATILIS and R. octropuicata, Sow., pl. 
figs. 16, 17, from the same locality. | 

There were also some one or two other forms, which were not sufficiently well pre- 
served to admit of a correct determination. One of these belongs probably to RA. Cu- 
veri. 

4. RHYNCHONELLA ... .? pl. xxiv. fig. 18. 


I could not determine this Rynchonella which had been found by Mr. R. Dawson, 
in Upper Greensand, at Curden, Aberdeenshire. Professor Nicol mforms me that the 
Greensand fossils are mostly found in the state of casts, and not often preserved well 
enough to admit of a correct determination. 


Iii. TERTIARY BRACHIOPODA. 


Brachiopoda do not appear to have been specifically as numerous 
during the Tertiary period as they were in the older formations, and 
it has been observed that the species of the first-named period are in 
many instances specifically identical with those still in existence. 

Three or four years ago, Mr. Etheridge gave me a Terebratula he 
had received from the island of Malta, assuring me at the same time 
that it had been obtained from Miocene or Pliocene deposits of that 
island. This shell struck me at the time as very remarkable, and 
this impression was subsequently concurred in by Professor Suess, to 
whom I showed it when he was last in England; 1 may also mention 
that while looking at some Tertiary fossils from Victoria, at the In- 
ternational Exhibition, I observed a Pliocene Terebratula, which, if 
not specifically identical with the Maltese species, is at any rate a 
very nearly related form. 


WALDHEIMIA GarIBALpIANA, Dav. n. sp. pl. xxiv. fig. 19. 


Shell somewhat obscurely pentagonal. Ventral valve convex and rather deep, divided 
into three portions by two diverging ridges or ribs, which commence close to the extre- 
mity of the beak, and extend to the front, leaving between them a slightly concave or 
flattened space, in which three or four longitudinal ribs are observable. The lateral por- 
tions of the valve become gradually and gently coucave as they approach the margin, and 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MATDSTONE. 44.7 


are obscurely marked by a few longitudinal ribs. The beak is somewhat produced, in- 
curved, and truncated by a small foraminal aperture, which is separated to some extent 
from the hinge-line by a deltidium. The dorsal valve is not nearly as convex as the ven- 
tral one, and is likewise divided into three portions, the central one being flattened and 
furrowed by four longitudinal ribs, while the lateral portions become more elevated as 
they approach the front, and curve inwards so as to meet the valve-edges of the central 
lower portion of the valve. 

Upon each of the lateral portions of the valve may be observed six or seven ribs, which 
become somewhat obscured as they approach the margin of the shell. Interior un- 
known. 

Length, 1 inch 7 lines; width, 1 inch 3 lines; depth, 10 lines, Tertiary, Malta. 


Obs. The recent species to which this shell bears the closest re- 
semblance is the Waldheimia flavescens, Lamarck, now alive in myriads 
at Port Jackson, Australia, as well as in some other localities. The 
recent species is however more regularly ovate than is the fossil one, 
the beak is less elongated, and with a larger foraminal aperture. 


THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 
By W. H. Benstep, Esa. 
(Concluded from page 382.) 


There only remains now to notice the post-Tertiary deposits to com- 
plete this account of the geology of Maidstone. The surface-soil 
and the earth filling in and covering over the faults and large fissures 
consist of clay, gravel, “sharp ” drift-sand, and fine sand, all being 
sedimentary deposits from water under different rates of motion. 
The exteriors of the highest masses of rock show the effects of a 
powerful erosion continued for a long period of time ; but this action 
was not the dashing of billows, for some surfaces of the roek, although 
worn to a great extent, have portions of fragile shells standing out 
from their surfaces, just as in the cavernous gutters of the rock 
masses of spicule jut out from the walls, the loose sand or soft hassock 
having been washed away. 

Old watercourses exist at a considerable 
depth from the surface, showing that a gra- 
dual lowering of the water-level of the springs 
~~ d has taken place. 

The opinion I have formed respecting the 
beds of drift and sedimentary clays, which 
in the district are found between the masses 
Fig. 9.—Protrusion of Rag- Of rock, is that an elevating force has lifted 

stone into Drift, at Maid- these masses, bearing up the drift and clay 

stone. a, beds of Ragstone; (Fig. 9), and that, in some instances, the 

b b, drift; cece, clay; dd, f t] il re f 7} was 

Vine of fijats peaks of the smaller masses of rock have 

been protruded into the drift and clay, 
inet and dividing them into lines at angles parallel with their 
sides. 


448 THE GHOLOGIST. 


The phenomena of these deposits offer a wide scope for considera- 
tion. The causes of such an accumulation of sedimentary matter, 
the deposit of such matter anterior to the clay, and the water-worn 
faces of the bluffs, could not have occurred in the present state of 
the surrounding country. The rush of water necessary for such 
events must have had a source much greater than any now existing 
in the district, and perhaps far distant. The quantity of water must 
have been vast. The conjecture that England at one time joined the 
continent, and that the mountains of the continent were the sources 
from which the supply proceeded, is therefore probable. 1+ is very 
interesting to find that the waters of the Medway deposit now a 
sediment very similar to the clay filling up the faults and covering 
the highest parts of the rocks. The larger débris brought down by 
the river is also analogous tothe gravel. Iam thus led to the infer- 
ence that these deposits are the relics of water having considerable 
motive power. 

The principal sources of the Medway are now in the elevated por- 
tions of the Weald, but we cannot attribute the ancient “ diluvial ”’ 
waters to so limited a source. 3 

The lines of fracture, which constitute the principal faults, are 
parallel to the course of the Medway, and are filled almost entirely 
with clay (brick-earth), and contain the remains of mammalia, viz. 
elephant, deer, horse, and hippopotamus. The bones and teeth are 
found at a considerable depth in the clay, and much separated. I 
discovered a fragment of a jaw of a horse with five teeth in their 
sockets. There occurs also, at a depth varying from ten to twenty 
feet from the surface, a bed of freshwater shells, Lymnea, Heliz, 
and Pupa. These shells are rather sparingly distributed, but may 
be found in all the clay-pits worked on each side of the river. The 
general level of the bed is about a hundred feet above the present 
levei of the water. Transverse faults cross the main lines of frac- 
ture, and. these are filled with a gravelly drift of flints, chert, and 
ragstone, more or less water-worn ferruginous sand, and occasionally 
a boulder of Druid sandstone. In the gravelly detritus I have found 
detached fossils from the Lower Greensand. 

The following statement of the moving power of water, in the ‘ Civil 
Engineers’ and Architects’ Journal,’ gives the rates of the force required 
for the disturbance of matter subjected to its action :—“ A velocity of 
three inches per second at bottom will work upon fine clay ; six inches 
will lift fine sand; eight inches per second, sand as coarse as linseed ; 
twelve inches per second will sweep along fine gravel; and twenty-four 
inches per second, gravel one inch in diameter.” From the above 
facts it would appear that the clay, drift-gravel, etc., were not de- 
posited by the same forces, and consequently not at the same time. 
The red clay, composed of very fine particles, was deposited after 
the erosion of the rock. At that period, I presume, a great flow of 
water was wearing away the angles of those rocks which obstructed its 
course. When this speed diminished and the water became tranquil, 
the fine clay held in suspension deposited itself at the bottom; this 


BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 449 


process continuing for a very long period of time, as the depth of 
this clay is, in the highest faults, from eighty feet upwards. The 
transverse faults were filled also with the same clay, but we now find 
them occupied by drift-gravel from half an inch to three inches in 
diameter. Another epoch, I imagine, then oceurred, when a force of 
water swept out the fine clay in the transverse faults, and deposited 
the drift in its place. This had its subsequent subsidence into the 
fissure or fault. A third period then took place, during which the 
land-surface was reduced to its present form; some of the faults 
were hollowed out, others left undisturbed. The undisturbed faults 
show no indication on the present surface of the subsidence of ma- 
terials which has taken place within their walls, and this proves that 
the beds of clay were at one time much higher than they are now. 
We find a clay similar in many respects to this, lying upon the 
highest summits of the chalk-hills, and at an elevation of 200 feet 
above the ragstone on which this lower clay reposes; but this upper 
clay contains chalk-flints not worn by attrition, and immense boulders 
of “ Druid sandstone.” I have never found any fragments of rag- 
stone in these upper beds of clay, which run up to the very verge of 
the chalk escarpment. At page 301 I have observed that in some 
situations no indication is seen at the surface of the land of the fault 
below, although this may be afterwards exposed in digging for stone; 
and when a section is thus made, a great subsidence is seen to have 
taken place, as indicated by bending lines at dd d in the diagram. 
Rocky Hill. River Medway. Thorn Hill, 


Fig. 10.—Section of the beds of Ragstone from HE. to W., Maidstone. 


a a represents the beds or cliffs of ragstone. ¢ e, faults filled 
with red clay. d, divisions of beds of fuller’s earth, gravel and sand, 
clay, ete., showing the lines of subsidence and of lateral pressure of 
the masses. 

The “ Druid sandstone,” of whieh rock Kits Coty house, Stone- 
henge, and many other Druidical remains are composed, is found 
scattered in great blocks over the surface of the chalk-hills, or buried 
superficially in the beds of clay retained in the hollows on the sum- 
mits of the escarpments. 

These blocks or boulders of siliceous sandstone are composed of 
granular quartz, and occasionally envelope chalk-flints and other ex- 
traneous bodies; they are perfectly analogous to those found in 
Berkshire and Wiltshire, where they are distinguished by the title of 
“orey. wethers.”’ Dr. Mantell, in his ‘Geology of the South-East 
of England,’ speaks of the “ beautiful conglomerate or pudding-stone 
of Hertfordshire. I have occasionally found fragments of a similar 

VOL. V. o M 


450 THE GEOLOGIST. 


conglomerate on the Maidstone hills, near the sites of the ‘ grey 
wethers.’ ”’ 

The statement of the late Dr. Mantell still holds good, that “no 
regular stratum of the ‘ Druid sandstone’ has yet been discovered 
in this country, and its geological position is still undetermined.” 

Preston Quarry, on the south side of 
the Medway, offers a fine section of the 
effects of an elevating force, as may be 
seen in the accompanying sketch (fig. 
11). The stone is fractured in all di- 
rections, and consequently large blocks 
are not obtainable. ‘The diagram, fig. 12, 


; ee inal ; ; Prac One: the continuation of the disturbed 
Fig. 11.—Anticlinal a pede: 


arry. , black greys; 0 4, 3 , 
pe (0s arg slp clay The most interesting part of the 


and greensand, with beds of stone quarry is the bed of loamy clay, Ie RALS 
bored with lithodomi at c’c’; d,is about three feet in thickness, and 
surface falling to the Medway. — Gontains fragments of shells—oysters, 
terebratule, corals, etc. In detached pieces, with their edges rounded, 
is a layer of stones, varying in thickness of about 2 inches by 6 or 


Preston Quarry. Medway. 


Fig. 12. Section of Preston District. 


i2 inches across. Their upper surfaces (c¢' c’) are perforated by litho- 
domi, and the perforations are filled with the loam and a white pow- 
dery deposit. The excavations are about 2 inches in depth; and one 
fragment is so perforated, that not a square inch of it remains intact. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Origin of Flint in Chalk. 


Dear Str,—Flint in chalk is found as bands of nodules or thin seams 
separated from each other by intervals of chalk varying from a few feet to 
many yards; the nodules, from a boy’s marble to two or three feet in 
diameter. In some pits only solitary flints occur here and there ; in others, 
in the same upper fint-bearing chalk, there are no flints at all. 

We have terebratula composed of pure flint extracted from blocks of 
equally pure chalk. 

I consider it very doubtful whether the flints have been deposited suc- 
cessively with the beds of chalk. Flint nodules, it appears to me, are 
actually in process of increase at this day. Yours truly, 

Rost. Mortimer. 

Fimber, Malton, November 13th, 1862. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 451 


Restoration of Pteraspis. 


My pear Sir,—I have read the Rev. 
H. Mitcheil’s paper on “The Restora- 
tion of Pteraspis”’ with great interest, 
but the conclusions he draws from his 
Scotch specimens are, I think, by no 
means borne out by examples obtained 
from English localities. I enclose you 
two sketches of Pteraspids from Crad- 
ley, in Herefordshire: one, in my own 
collection, showing the anterior portion 
of the shield; the other, exhibiting the 
posterior portion and surface markings, 
in the possession of Mr. Gregory, of 
Golden Square. These two sketches 
will be sufficient to show that the shield, 
as drawn by Mr. Mitchell, is wanting in 
some important particulars; the true 
form I believe to be that given in fig. 3. 
Mr. Mitchell seems to be under the im- 
pestsicn that the restoration of Pteraspis 

as never before been attempted, al- 
though first-rate specimens have been 
in our museums and private collections 
for some years. Professor Huxley, in 
vol. xvii. of Geol. Soc. J ournal, has given , 
a diagram of arestored Pteraspis, which 
is copied in fig. 3; he has likewise re- pt eas 
ferred to the subject in British Asso- Fic 1 
ciation Reports, 1858, and has further Ser 
written a detailed account of the microscopic structure of the test in vol. 
xiv. of the Journal. The references in fig. 3 are as follows :—a is the snout 
or rostrum, united with 0, the shield-like 
disk ; e ec are the lateral cornua attached to 
the disk ; e isthe posterior spine, and ff are 
the orbits or perhaps the nasal apertures. 
The corresponding parts can be easily found 
in the sketches I have given of the fossil 
Pteraspids. I may just mention here, that 
the bonelike test of these fish is composed of 
three layers,—an external, finely striated 
layer, a middle cancellated layer composed 
of polygonal cells, and a third internal 
layer of a laminated nacreous substance. 
The specimen drawn in fig. 2 shows the 
external layer remarkably well; in fig. 1, 
parts of the middle cancellated layer may 
be seen; the rest of the test, which is pre- 
served, being the internal nacreous layer. 

I remain, dear Sir, yours truly, 
EK. R. LANKESTER. 
8, Savile Row, Nov. 9. 


P.S.—You will observe some minute in- 
dentations drawn in fig. 2, on the surface 


452 THE GEOLOGIST. 


www eos oe 


x 
Fig. 3.—Diagram of restored Pteraspis. 
of the shield. Professor Huxley informs me that he believes them to 


be the sites (if I may so say) of mucous follicles. I have thought this 
worth mentioning in a note, as they have never before been noticed. 


When and how was the Isle of Wight severed from the Mainland ? 


Srr,—On two different occasions inquiries have been made in the pages 
of the ‘ Geologist,’ as to the period at which the Isle of Wight was torn 
from the maimland and entrusted to the rude guardianship of the ocean. 
The subject is an interesting one, especially in its geological aspects ; and 
as I have given some attention to it, I will attempt to reply to the in- 
quiries of your Lymington correspondent. 

I am not aware that there is the least particle of historical evidence that 
gives countenance to the famous passage in Diodorus Siculus that has 
been interpreted by various writers as proving that, when he lived, the 
channel of the Solent was fordable at low water. As the particular island 
of which Diodorus is speaking, was one from which the miners of Cornwall 
were in the habit of exporting their minerals, and there is a small isle (St. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 453 


Michael’s) on their own coast, to which such minerals could easily have 
been conveyed, and which, in its connection with the mainland, answers 
pretty closely to the historian’s remarks; and further, as I know of no 
argument worth listening to why the miners of Cornwall should have 
_ transported their tin to the Isle of Wight for exportation,—on all these 
several grounds, I think one may safely conclude that neither Diodorus, 
nor any other writer of note, has left any evidencv whatsoever about the 
fordableness of the Solent within historical times. 

The severance of this island from the mainland, it appears to me, was 
effected under very unusual circumstances, and at a very distant period. 
The present channel of the Solent, being pretty nearly equally deep and 
equally broad throughout its entire length of twelve or fourteen miles, 
proves at once that it was not formed in the usual way of island-severing 
channels, that is, by gradual encroachments of the sea on the two opposite 
sides of a narrow neck of land. If so formed, the middle part of the 
channel would naturally have been both narrower and shallower than the 
two mouths that first admitted the tide towards it; but this is not the 
ease. Nor are there any important indestructible obstructing rocks on either 
side of the channel that could account for this peculiar formation. It is to 
be accounted for, therefore, not by the excavations of a gradually ap- 
penne sea, but, as I shall hereafter have to attempt to show, by its 

eing originally the trunk or outlet of a very considerable river. 

Again, at the western mouth of the Solent, there is almost an immea- 
surable accumulation of rolled flints, with which are mingled a sufficient 
sprinkling of fragmental fossil shells of various genera and species to show 
us from whence the whole mass was originally transported. This aceumu- 
lation forms a sort of natural breakwater, two miles in length, one hundred 
yards in breadth, and many feet in thickness, extending between the main- 
land at Milford and a point beyond midchannel, where Hurst Castle was 
erected three centuries ago. Where the castle stands, this bank of flints 
becomes expanded so as to cover a circular space of fully twenty acres. 
Now all this enormous accumulation of flints, together with another one 
probably much larger on the island side of the main channel, and lying 
under the sea, in front of Alum Bay and the Needles, are formed of drift 
and broken fossils from the Barton beds ; the fossils themselves plainly 
pointing to the formation whence the whole mass was derived. It would 
add too much to the length of my paper, to account for this vast lodgment 
of drift around the mouth of the Solent; neither is this needful as respects 
the objects of my remarks: only I would have my readers to understand 
that it depends upon the flow of tide through the channel of the Solent. 
And when it is remembered that the annual supply of drift along the Bar- 
ton cliffs is comparatively small, it will then be seen that it must have re- 
quired a period reaching far back in time to gather together the vast accu- 
mulations referred to above, and consequently they may be regarded in 
themselves as visible and lasting memorials of the very great antiquity of 
the separation of the Isle of Wight from the mainland. 

Nay, I will venture to hazard an opinion, even though I stand without 
geological authorities to support me, that will place the date of the forma- 
tion of the Solent Sea still further back in the dimness of the past ; an opi- 
nion to which both the peculiarities of the channel itself above referred to, 
and the geological formation of the surrounding country, bear very strong 
testimony. Whoever as a geologist examines the vertical strata of the 
chalk at the Needles, nay, and throughout the whole length of the Isle of 
Wight, and the strata of the same rock in exactly the same unusual posi- 
tion on the bold white cliff on the Dorsetshire coast some twenty miles 


454A. THE GEOLOGIST. 


westward of the Needles, will not doubt but that the two promontories 
were once united, forming a rocky neck of land from. Dorset to the 
Needles. This chain of chalk might, or might not, be so cleft in twain as 
to allow the rivers of Dorset and Wilts. to find a passage through them to 
the main ocean. My opinion, however, is that they had no such outlet, 
but that, at that far distant period, the entire drainage of more than two 
counties, embracing the rivers that join the sea at Poole and Christchurch, 
flowed through what is now called Christchurch Bay, down the Solent, and 
joined the sea at Spithead. 

According to this theory, the Solent was at that time an estuary some- 
what like the Southampton Water, having but one opening to the British 
Channel; but of so much more importance than the latter as it was fed by 
a vastly greater flow of fresh water ; and it further supposes that” the 
bed of the Solent was scooped out originally by a river, which from the 
extent of its drainage one may guess to have been little inferior to the 
Thames or the Humber. And this opinion acquires countenance from the 
circumstance that it accounts, in a most satisfactory way, for the equality 
of depth and breadth in the Solent Sea. Of course, according to this view, 
this sea would lose its original condition as an estuary at the time when 
the British Channel had so far made a breach through the chain of rocks 
connecting the Isle of Wight with Dorsetshire as to give an opening into 
itself for the Dorsetshire rivers, somewhere opposite to the town of Christ- 
church. From that time forth the Solent would become what it is at pre- 
sent, losing its character as an estuary, and assuming that of a long narrow 
sea. And at the same period, of course, the Isle of Wight would part with 
its peninsular character, and be severed from the mainland, but at a point 
far apart from that at which the severance is usually supposed to have 
taken place. The distant period at which such changes took place it would 
be hopeless to guess at, amid the dimness of the data on which calculations 
could be founded. It could not be less, however, than many thousands of 
years, seeing that since that time, the British Channel has not only made 
a broad breach of twenty miles through a chain of slowly yielding rocks, 
but has also pushed its way gradually across the broad extent of the Poole 
and Christchurch Bays. 

In conclusion, I would observe, that if your correspondent at Lyming- 
ton simply put his question about the separation of the Isle of Wight as 
an archeological inquiry, I fear he will consider my answer to it as some- 
what dreamy. But I am confident, if he and others who may honour me 
with a careful perusal of my observations, are tolerably acquainted with 
the geology of the neighbourhood, and have had their minds disciplined 
for realizing the operations of nature on a large scale and through length- 
ened periods of time, they will perceive in this paper opinions indicative of 
more than novelty, having, as I believe, very important geological facts 
to uphold them. Yours, etc., 


W. Fox. 
Brixton, Isle of Wight, Nov. 8. 


Tracks, Trails, and Imprints. 


Drak Srr,—At nearly the same time, probably, when I was pointing out 
the desirability of careful drawings and casts being made of the tracks 
and trails of living annelids, mollusks, insects, ete. (‘Geologist,’ No. 52, 
p- 138, April, 1862), for the guidance of the paleontologist in decipher- 


CORRESPONDENCE, 455 


ing fossil surface-markings, my friend Dr. J. W. Dawson, of Montreal, 
must have been engaged in the useful labour of preserving faithful re- 
cords of the track-marks of Limulus polyphemus on the sands of Orchard 
Beach (Gulf of St. Lawrence), for the purpose of comparing them with 
the fossil tracks, termed Protichnites and Climactichnites, found in the 
Potsdam sandstone of Canada. 

The results of these well-directed researches have been described and 
illustrated by Dr. Dawson in the Canadian ‘ Naturalist and Geologist’ 
for August, 1862 (vol. vi. No. 4), p. 271, etc.; and it appears certain that 
the trail of Limulus on wet sand is very similar to Protichnites, except- 
ing that the latter has not the lateral furrows that are produced in the 
former by the edges of the carapace. Swimming in very shallow water, 
Limulus produces on the sand a trail very similar to Climactichnites ; the 
latter, however, showing lateral and median ridges, whilst the former has 
furrows instead. 

Dr. Dawson agrees, therefore, with Professor Owen in referring the 
Protichnites to a Limuloid animal; and is strongly inclined to refer Cli- 
mactichnites to the same agent. Still he thinks it not impossible that the 
large Lower Silurian Trilobite, Paradoxides, may have been the animal 
that produced all the marks in question. 

With the fact before him, that Climactichnital markings are left on a 
subaquatic surface by Limulus, Dr. Dawson, of course, rejects the hy pothe- 
sis of Climactichnites being gallery-tracks, as advanced in my paper above 
referred to (loc. cit. p. 139). Still these recent tracks differ from what 
Dr. Dawson regards as their primeval analogues, in that their “lateral and 
medial lines are furrows instead of ridges ;” and therefore the identifica- 
tion is not complete. I would ask that the question still remain open until 
Dr. Dawson and other good naturalists have more material at hand and a 
wider basis for conclusions. 

“J may add that the burrowing of Limulus polyphemus,” Dr. Dawson re- 
marks, ‘is easily effected in soft sand, but is confined toa mere burying of 
itself beneath a very slight smooth elevation.” The great well-known 
North American Trilobites (Paradoxides), however, whose bodies exactly 
fit in width to the Climactichnital and Protichnital trails of Canada, and 
whose abiding place was really the muddy sea-bed on the geological hori- 
zon of the Potsdam sandstone, in all probability crawled over these littoral 
sands, just as the Limulus frequents the existing sandy beaches in spring 
and summer; and (like Swleator and Krayera, loc. cit. pp. 131, 138, 139) 
it may have burrowed in them, with much longer burrows than Limulus 
makes, and in that case the in-fallen galleries would supply the raised 
ridges of the Climactichnite. 

We need not suppose the presence of Limulus, or of any unknown 
Limuloid animal, in the primordial sea; for there is little doubt, if any, 
that Paradoxides, known to have then existed, can have made the trails 
in question (as Dr. Dawson allows, p. 277), if they had the usual crusta- 
cean locomotive apparatus ; and ‘‘1t seems almost certain, from analogy, 
that they must have possessed such organs” (Dawson, Joc. cit. p. 277). 
Nor does the trail of Limulus correspond exactly with the fossil tracks ; 
the edges of its carapace produce, in crawling, side-furrows not ‘seen in 
Protichnites ; and its subaquatic trail has but a general resemblance to 
Climactichnites, as far as we can learn from the published observations. 

* Dr. Dawson, in his interesting paper before me, also notices (p. 275) the 
occurrence, at Orchard Beach, of “‘small Climactichnite-like tracks” that 
were made, as he ascertained, by a large beetle (Melolontha (Polyphylla) 
variolosa ?), ‘which occasionally settled on the wet sand and crept for 


4.56 _ THE GEOLOGIST. 


some distance on its surface, apparently making the transverse tracks by 
means of its tarsi.” A figure of this insect-track would have been very 
acceptable in connection with the subject treated of n my above-mentioned 
paper, loc. cit. p. 182, ete. 
T. Rupert Jones. 
Royal Military College, Sandhurst. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 


ON THE CORELATION OF THE SLATES AND LIMESTONES OF 
DEVON AND CORNWALL WITH THE OLD RED SANDSTONES 
OF SCOTLAND. ; 

By W. PENGELLY, F.G.S. 


The distinguished author of ‘ Siluria,’ as geologists well know, has made 
a tripartite division of the slates and limestones of Devon and Cornwall, 
as well as of the Old Red Sandstones of Scotland, South Wales, ete., 
and given chronological equivalency to the upper, middle, and lower 
groups of each respectively. Thus he places the Barnstaple and Pether- 
win beds—the latter being characterized by the presence of Clymenia 
and Cypridina—on the horizon of the Upper Old Red, with its Holopty- 
chius and Phyllolepis ; the limestones of Torquay, Newton, and Plymouth, 
in which are found Stringocephalus, Calceola, Bronteus, Acervularia, etc., 
are made to synchronize with the deposits of Caithness, etc., containing 
the remains of Asterolepis, Coccosteus, etc. ; whilst the slates of Meadfoot, 
etc., in South Devon, and Looe, etc., in Cornwall, distinguished by the re- 
markable Coral Pleurodictyum problematicum, are regarded as the equiva- 
lents in time of the Lower Old Red rocks of Forfar and the North-east 
Highlands, which are charged with Cephalaspis, Pteraspis, and Onchus.* 

Though this co-ordination may be said to have met a large acceptance, 
it is not in keeping with the opinions of some who laboured long and sedu- 
lously amongst the older rocks of Devon and Cornwall, nor is it un- 
challenged by some existing writers. The late Sir Henry Dela Beche re- 
garded ‘the bulk of the Devonshire and Cornish rocks as,-at least in 
part, equivalent to the lower beds of the Carboniferous Limestone, to the 
passage beds between the Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Lime- 
stone of Ireland, South Wales, etc., and also to some portion of the 
higher part of the Old Red Sandstones of Herefordshire and adjacent 
districts.’*+ The Rey. David Williams considered “the Devonian system 
as occupying an enormous interval between the Old Red Sandstone and 
Mountain Limestone.”{ Mr. Page says, ‘“‘ We shall use the term ‘ Devo- 
nian’ as applying more particularly to the strata as developed in the 
south of England, and the term ‘ Old Red Sandstone’ as more especially 
applicable to those of Scotland ;. believing, as we do, that the Caithness 
and Forfarshire beds are on a lower horizon than the English Devonians, 
and that it requires both developments to constitute the ‘system’ as at 
present understood by European and American geologists.Ӥ Mr. Bete 
Jukes says, ‘‘ It is quite possible that the slates and limestones of Devon, 


* “Siluria,’ 3rd edit., p. 433. 

+ Memoirs Geol. Survey, vol. . p. 1038. 

¢ Report Royal Geol. Soc. of Cornwall, 1843, p. 128. 
§ * Advanced Text-Book of Geology,’ p. 123. 


nt es 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. “457 


and the red sandstones of South Wales, although each deposited within 
the same great period, are not strictly contemporaneous, but were formed 
at different parts of the period. Or it is possible the red sandstone series 
of South Wales is not a continuous series; that the lower part of it, at 
all events, is older than any of the Devon series, while the upper part 
may be newer than much of that series.’”* 

That some—that much—diversity of opinion should exist, respecting the 
time relations of the two systems of rocks now under notice, is what 


- might be expected when their lithological and paleontological dissimi- 


larities are remembered; the northern beds are eminently arenaceous, whilst 
those in the south are almost exclusively argillaceous or calcareous ; the 
former teem with fossil fish, and the latter with the exuvie of mollus- 
cous and radiate animals; but, according to our fossil registers, Scot- 
land does not yield the shells, corals, or sponges so abundant in De- 
vonshire; nor are the ichthyolites of the former found in the latter area : 
they have no organic remains in common. 

It will doubtless be remembered, however, that in his ‘ Palzeozoic Fossils 
of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset,’ Professor Phillips has figured 
and described as a scale of Holoptychius, a fossil found in the slates of 
Meadfoot, near Torquay, in South Devon.} It would seem that this iden- 
tification has not been considered perfectly reliable, since the fossil has 
not found a place in subsequent works on the Devonshire beds, or in Pro- 
fessor Morris’s ‘ Catalogue of British Fossils.’ 

This dissimilarity of the organisms of two not very widely separated, 
and, as has been supposed, contemporary sets of deposits, is, to say the 
least, very remarkable. The mineral and mechanical characters of the Old 
Red rocks may sufficiently explain the absence, in them, of mollusks, and 
other dwellers at the sea-bottom; but there seems no satisfactory mode of 
accounting for the non-appearance of fishes in the slates and limestones of 
Devon and Cornwall. Various solutions of the problem have been at- 
tempted. We are asked by one to suppose that some geographical diffi- 
culty or barrier separated the two areas and prevented the migration and 
mingling of their inhabitants ; whilst another suggests that the Old Red 
fish were probably at home in fresh water only, and ought not to be looked 
for in beds so decidedly marine as those of Devon and Cornwall. 

The interesting and important discovery, by Sir RK. I. Murchison, of the 
intermixture, in the same Devonian bed in Russia, of the fish of the Upper 
and Middle Old Red of Scotland with the shells of Devonshire,f leaves 
the difficulty untouched ; nor does it appear that the synchronism of the 
representative beds in Britain necessarily flows from it. It proves, of 
course, that the fish and shells lived at one and the same time in Russian, 
not that they did so in British, waters. We may have an example, 
here, of the distinction between geological contemporancity and synchrony, 
so ably pointed out, on a recent occasion, by Professor Huxley.§ It is 
possible, for instance, that the fish commenced existence before the shells ; 
that they appeared in Scotland long before their descent upon Russia; that 
slowly changing conditions compelled them tardily to abandon their ear- 
lier home for a more congenial one; and that, on their arrival, they found 
there the invertebrate tribes which subsequently migrated to where the 
foundations of the future Devon and Cornwall were being laid. 

Be this as it may, some geologists, recognizing the synchronism of the 


* ©Manual of Geology,’ 2nd edit. (1862), p. 492. 

+ Pal. Fossils, pl. 57, fig. 256, p, 183. 

¢ ‘Siluria,’ 3rd edit., p. 382. 

§ Anniversary Address, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvii. part 2. 
Wiis. Vs 3°N 


458 THE GEOLOGIST. 


two systems of deposits, and believing that no sufficient reason had heen 
assigned for the absence of the Old Red fish in Devon and Cornwall, have 
never failed to cherish the belief that, sooner or later, they would be found 
there; and, indeed, we have heard from time to time that at length the 
wished-for ichthyolites have been exhumed in the southern area. At the 
meeting of the British Association held at Cork, m 1843, Mr. Peach 
brought under the notice of the Geological Section, certain fossils which 
had then recently been found by Mr. Couch, in the Devonian slates, near 
Polperro, in Cornwall. The paleontologists to whom they were then sub- 
mitted considered them to be remains of fishes; and, indeed, the late Mr. 
Hugh Miller subsequently found a specimen amongst them, of which he 
said that ‘‘if he had found it in the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty, he 
would have no hesitation in regarding it as a fragment of some dermal 
plate ef Asterolepis.” These fossils were found in great numbers in cer- 
tain localities, and extended along the Cornish coast, at by no means wide 
intervals, from Fowey Harbour to the Rame Head ; they were constantly 
spoken of as the “ Polperro fish,” and the slates in which they were found 
as the “ Polperro fish-beds.” At length, Professor M‘Coy and Mr. Carter 
of Cambridge subjected them to a rigorous microscopic scrutiny, and pro- 
nounced them to be nothing more than sponges belonging to their new 
genus Steganodictyum, of which they formed two species, S. Cornubicum 
and S. Carteri. It may be doubted, however, whether certain fossils 
found with them were not true ichthyolites ; indeed, one specimen which, 
a few years since, I found in the Steganodictywm beds at Looe, in Cornwall, 
has been pronounced, by Sir P. Egerton and others, to be a decided ich- 
thyodorulite.* It has not been identified, however, even generically. 

A few weeks since, I had the good fortune to find a fossil in the Plewro- 
dictyum slates at Meadfoot, near Torquay ; that is, in certainly the lowest 
group of the rocks of South Devon and Cornwall, and which Sir R. Mur- 
chison has placed on the horizon of the Cephalaspidian and Pteraspidian 
beds—the lowest of his divisions of the Old Red of Scotland. From the 
first, | believed it to bea fish-scale or plate; and very recently, Mr. Davies, 
of the British Museum, has not only confirmed this, but has identified the 
fossil as a scale—or rather, a portion of one—of Phyllolepis concentricus, 
a fish known only by its fossil scales, and which had hitherto been found 
aM a ane Clashbennie beds, belonging to Sir R. I. Murchison’s Upper 

ed. 

This fossil then appears to necessitate the belief, either that the organism 
which it reprezents had a greater vertical range than has been supposed,— 
that is, that it belonged to the Lower and Middle, as well as Upper Old 
Red fauna,—or that the Pleurodictyum beds of Devon and Cornwall, in- 
stead of being on the horizon of the Lower, are on that of the Upper Old 
Red series of Scotland. 

To accept the first of these, apparently the only two alternatives, would 
be to accept the difficulty of supposing that Phyllolepis dates from Cepha- 
Jaspidian times ; that it witnessed the extinction of this family as well as 
the subsequent introduction and withdrawal of Coccosteus, Asterolepis, and 
others ; and yet that, unlike its early contemporaries, it failed to leave be- 
hind any trace of its existence in the Old Red rocks, save only in the 
upper of their three groups. 

Rejecting this hypothesis, however, we seem compelled to adopt its rival, 
which amounts to this:—there are in Devon and Cornwall no representa- 
tives of the Lower and Middle Old Red rocks of Scotland, but the 
lowest—the Pleurodictyum beds—of the former are on the horizon of the 

* See ‘ Geologist,’ vol. iv. pl. vi. p. 346. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 4.59 


upper division of the latter; an opinion probably in harmony with that of 
Sir H. De la Beche already quoted. Lied 

In an earlier paper on this subject—based exclusively on the statistics of 
the invertebrate fossils of Devon and Cornwall, considered both specifi- 
eally and generically—I expressed the opinion, that the lowest beds of 
Devonshire do not constitute the basement of the Devonian system, and 
that the Barnstaple beds were rather Carboniferous than Devonian, or 
were, perhaps, ‘‘ passage-beds ” between them.* It is not without interest 
to find this opinion supported by the more reliable, because vertebrate, 
evidence now produced. It will be remembered, too, that the indications 
of the Holoptychian seale, already mentioned as having been described by 
Professor Phillips, and which was also found in the Meadfoot slates, are 
to the same effect. 

Like the Old Red Sandstone fish found in Russia by Sir R. Murchison, 
the Phyllolepis scale was surrounded with marine shells,7 and also by 
corals of the family Oyathophyllide ; the ancient fish to which it belonged 
was therefore not incapable of living in the sea. 


NOTICE OF FOSSILIZED MAMMALIAN REMAINS FROM THE BED 
OF THE GERMAN OCEAN. 


By C. B. Ross, F.G.S., Ere. 


It has for a very long period been known that, during the degradation 
of the cliffs of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, teeth and 
bones of various mammals have been exhumed, and more largely those of 
pachyderms. 

In Queen Hlizabeth’s time, huge bones were found at Walton, near Har- 
wich. They were then considered to be those of giants. In the ‘ Philo- 
sophical Transactions’ for 1745, a Mr. Baker records the finding of a fossil 
elephant at Mundesley Cliff; and, in 1746, Mr. Wm, Arderon, of Nor- 
wich, makes mention of similar remains discovered at Hasborough and 
Walket, on the Norfolk coast. My present object is, to lay before you a 
few of the specimens which have been brought up from the bed of the 
German Ocean, entangled in the trawling nets of the Yarmouth fisher- 
men. Had they been more portable, I would have exhibited tusks and 
other large remains of these huge beasts, of which there are some fine 
specimens in the collection of Messrs. Owles, Steward, Nash, and my own. 
The late Miss Gurney, of Northreps, was the possessor of a large collec- 
tion of fossil mammals from the cliffs of Cromer and its vicinity, and which 
may now be seen in the Museum at Norwich. The Rev. John Gunn, of 
Irstead, has made an extensive and rich collection of similar remains, from 
Mundesley and Hasborough. 

In the course of years vast numbers of teeth and bones have been col- 
lected. The late Mr. Woodward, of Norwich, says, in his ‘Geology of 
Norfolk,’ ‘“‘ Mammalian remains have been dredged up on the Knole Sand, 
off Hasborough. This spot presented us, in 1826, with the finest tusk of the 
mammoth; it measured 93 feet along its curvature, and weighed 97 lbs.” 
But off Dungeness a tusk was dredged up which measured 11 feet in 
length, and yielded some pieces of ivory fit for manufacture. The oyster- 
bed off Hasborough was discovered in 1820, and, from the number of 
grinders of the elephant found there, Mr. Woodward felt himself war- 

* ‘Geologist,’ vol. v. pp. 28 and 3k. + ‘Siluria,’ 3rd edit., pp. 883 and 4338, 

} This scale has been transmitted to me and will shortly be figured.—Lp. Grou, 


4.60 THE GEOLOGIST. 


ranted in concluding that upwards of 500 animals were deposited in that 
limited space. 

The coloured map of the German Ocean exhibited at the meeting, showed 
the localities whence the organic remains are chiefly taken; certain spots 
marked thereon are the fishing-grounds, and, therefore, the depositories of 
the fossils with which we are made familiar; but we cannot doubt that 
these exuvie are more generally distributed over the sea-bottom. The 
following specimens were exhibited:—Teeth of three species of ele- 
phant, Elephas primigenius, E. antiquus, and EH. meridionalis ; cervical 
and dorsal vertebre of the same genus; two teeth of a hippopotamus (a 
dorsal vertebra has since been brought up); a dorsal vertebra of a whale ; 
a unique specimen of a lower jaw of the Trichechus rosmarus ; heads of 
the Megaceros Hibernicus, male and female; an anterior dorsal vertebra 
of ditto (an antler, 4 feet 6 inches long, has since been brought me) ; atlas 
of ditto; a fragment of an antler of Cervus tarandus; the humerus of a 
gigantic ox; a portion of the head of the Hquus fossilis; and a fine speci- 
men of Castor Europeus, the head. The colour of these specimens might 
lead us to believe that they belonged to the Mammaliferous Crag period ; 
but colour is not a decisive criterion. It is probable that they may have 
lain in close proximity to a bed of crag ;* they are unquestionably from a 
Pleistocene deposit. 

And, now, as to how these organic remains came to be at the bottom of 
the ocean. Ata not very remote geological period our island was united 
with the continent; a catastrophe took place which separated them and 
led to the formation of the German Ocean. This gap has been continually 
enlarging, from the crumbling down of the cliffs on either side; the fossils 
have thus been exhumed, carried out to sea during storms by retiring waves, 
and there deposited. No doubt, also, that many remains which lie buried 
in the land that omginally united us to the continent sank bodily with 
it, and consequently they are met with when the sea-bottom is raked over 
by the trawling-nets of the fishermen. 

P.S.—I give the measurement of three tusks. One, belonging to Mr. 
Owles, measures—length of external curve, 7 feet 5 inches; girth at 
proximal end, 18 inches; radius of inner curve, $ feet. 

I possess two perfect tusks—one, length, 6 feet 3 inches; girth, 17 
inches ; radius of curve, 3 feet 3 inches: the other, length, 6 feet; girth, 
125 inches; radius of curve, 4 feet 2 inches. These proportions indicate 
that my specimens are from two distinct species of the elephant. 

A femur of the mammoth in my possession measures 3 feet 5 inches, 
minus the head of the bone, which is gone. 

The late Rev. Mr. Layton possessed the finest collection of mammalian 
remains from the Norfolk coast. At his death it was purchased for the 
British Museum. 


NOTES ON DEEP OR ARTESIAN WELLS AT NORWICH. 
By tHE Rev. J. Crompton. 
The object of this paper is to put on record the facts connected with the 
attempt now being made by Messrs. J. and J. Colman, of London and 


N orwich, to bore a deep well through the chalk to the Lower Greensand. 
Mr. Rose, of Yarmouth, in the ‘Proceedings of the Geologists’ Associa- 


* The atlas of the Megaceros has a Turritella incrassata (Crag fossil) sticking in the 
canal for the vertebral artery. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 461 


tion,’ No. 8, 1862, has mentioned some of these facts, but it seemed worth 
while to throw them together in a distinct memorial, if only to draw atten- 
tion to an enterprising and patiently-conducted operation of great extent, 
by a single commercial firm, in obedience to geological principles. 

The wells (for there have been two attempts) are situated at the foot of 
Carrow and Bracondale Hill, Norwich, within a few yards of the river 
Wensum, the object of the deep sinking being to obtain a water, for use 
in the manufacture of starch, perfectly free from the impurities of that 
found within the range of the chalk of the neighbourhood. 

The operation chosen is that of boring by Messrs. Mather and Platt’s 
machine. This machine consists of an iron boring-head, 8 or 10 feet in 
length, armed with strong chisels, suspended by a flat rope wound round a 
drum; the hammering or “jumping” motion being given by a special 
steam piston. The neck of the borer is formed with a screw, on which a 
collar connected with the flat rope works, the effect being that the borer is 
gradually twisted when at work, so that the chisels constantly strike on 
fresh points, and more thoroughly break up the materials met with. When 
a sufficient quantity has been thus broken up, the boring-head is removed 
and a *‘shell-pump” is let down having a valve at the base. On the pump 
being set in action, the loose material is forced into the shell and brought 
to the surface. In the hard chalk the rate of penetration accomplished 
was 20 to 25 feet a day for 500 feet. 

The first well failed in consequence of the iron tubing employed to case 
the bore slipping across and completely obstructing the action of the ma- 
chine, at a depth of 775 feet. 

The second is being sunk a few yards off, on the same level as the first. 

After a few feet of alluvium the borer passed through hard chalk, with 
flints at distances of about 6 or 7 feet apart, for 700 feet, with the exception 
of 10 feet at the depth of 500 feet, where the rock was soft, “like white 
lead,” and of a rusty colour. Thence the hard chalk continued, with 
flints thicker together, viz. about 4 feet apart, to the depth of 1050 feet. 
Then 102 feet were pierced, of chalk free from fiints, to the Upper Green- 
sand, a stratum of about 6 feet, and next the gault for 36 feet: the whole 
boring being full of water to within 16 feet of the surface. 

In this gault, however, the greatest obstacle has been met, and the com- 
pletion of the work arrested for a considerable time past. This stratum is 
soft, so that the chisels, effective in the harder upper strata, are of little 
use. The material caves in from all sides as the instrument proceeds, and, 
unfortunately, the rope has broken more than once, leaving the boring- 
head below, and one now lying across the bore baffles the engineer’s 
efforts to remove it. 

The strata passed through are— 


Feet. 
Alluvium . . . } 2 - 5 lr 
Hard chalk, with flints : : . . 483 
Soft chalk : : : : : risaaeu 
Hard chalk, as before : : . 190 ¢ 1042 
Hard chalk, with flints; in closer layers . 350 | 
Chalk, without flints . ; ; : Sa 
Upper Greensand , : : : anal 
Gault, not yet passed through . ; . 36 

1198 


The fossils brought up have not been very numerous, as might be ex- 
pected from the smallness of the bore, viz. twenty-one inches in diameter. 


462 THE GEOLOGIST. 


The larger proportion have been from the lower strata, especially the 
rault. 

. From the chalk the ordinary fossils, as the Spatangus cordiformis, have 
been taken; three sharks’ teeth, one that of Zamna Mantelliit. From 
the gault, as noticed by Mr. Rose, characteristic small Belemnites, with 
Ammonites lautus, Ammonites symmetricus, and fragments of Inoceramus. 

The Foraminifera as yet detected by my friend Mr. Kitton, of Norwich, 
whose accuracy of observation as well as kindness I have to thank, are— 
in the gault, Orbulina (common); Lagena (rare) ; Nodosaria (not uncom- 
mon); Frondicularia (rare); Dentalina (not uncommon); Hntosolenia 
(rare); Rotalina (not uncommon); Polymorphina (ditto); Textularia 
(common) ; Globigerina (ditto). Fragments of Bryozoa occasionally oc- 
cur. 

In the chalk at 500 feet depth the Foraminifera are more sparsely dis- 
tributed, and much more injured than in the gault. They consist princi- 
pally of two genera, Globigerina and Fexrtularia. Rotalina are somewhat 
morerare. The same is the case with the samples examined from 110, 400, 
and 1000 feet in depth. 

The work, from the unfortunate cause mentioned, is arrested apparently 
on the point of success, to the great annoyance of the enterprising proprie- 
tors ; and, although our business here is with the scientific facts presented, 
the geological section will not hesitate to recognize one more instance in 
which the science of geology bas received practical homage from a private 
commercial firm in a work of considerable boldness, carried on for three 
years in the face of temporary defeats, with admirable courage and faith 
in the dictates of geology. 


The other papers read in the Geological Section were :— Opening 
Address by Mr. J. B. Jukes; ‘On a Whittled Bone from the Barnwell 
Gravel,” by Mr. Harry Seeley; ‘On Tertiary Coal,” by Prof. Ansted ; 
“ Alluvial Deposits on the Rhine,’ by R. H. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. ; 
“On an Ancient Sea-beach at Fort William,” by Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys; 
‘Glacial Deposits of Highlands of Scotland,” by Rev. 8. W. King; “On 
Wookey Hole Hyena Den,” by Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins; ‘“ Last Eruption of 
Vesuvius,” by Dr. Daubeny ; “ Extinct Voleano in Upper Burmah,” by 
Mr. W. T. Blandford ; ‘ Comparative Structure of Artificial and Natural 
Igneous Rocks,” by H.C. Sorby, F.R.S.; ‘‘ General Review of Cambrian 
Rocks,” and ‘Older Metamorphic Rocks and their Fossil Contents,” by 
Dr. Bigsby ; “Contributions to Australian Mesozoic Geology,” by Mr. 
C. Moore ; * Correlation of Iron-slates and Limestones of Devon and Corn- 
wall with Old Red Sandstone of Scotland,” by Mr. W. Pengelly ; “ Six- 
inch Maps of Bronan district, Co. Clare,” by Mr. F. J. Foot; “Gold- 
fields of Auckland” and “ Gold-fields of Otago,” by Dr. L. W. Lind- 
say; “Tooth of Mastodon from Tertiary Marls, Shanghai,” by Prof. 
Owen; “New Recent Echinoderm and its probable Paleontological 
Affinities,” by Dr. Allman ; “ Identity of Upper Old Red Sandstone with 
the Uppermost Devonian, and of the Middle and Lower Old Red with the 
Middle and Lower Devonian,” by Mr. J. W. Salter ; “ Skull of Rhinoceros 
tichorhinus,” by S. P. Saville ; “‘ Supplementary Report on Slaty Cleavage,” 
by Prof. Phillips ; ‘Composition of Granite of Donegal,” by Dr. T. Sterry 
Hunt ; “ Ossiferous Caves in Malta,’ by Dr. Falconer; “Glacial Phe- 
nomena of Upper Indus,” by Captain Godwin-Austen ; “ Fossils of Boul- 
der Clay in Caithness,” by Mr. C. W. Peach; “ Mammalian Remains 
from Bed of German Ocean,” by Mr. C. B. Rose; ‘“ Flint Implements 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 463 


from North Devon,” by Rev. J. Dingle; ‘ Veins in the Models of Fora- 
minifera,” by Dr. Pritsch; ‘‘ Diluvial and Alluvial Deposits of Central 
Germany, and on the Climate of the Period,” by Dr. von Seebach ; “On 
Petroleum of North America,” and “ Structure and Origin of Certain 
Limestones and Dolomites,” by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt; ‘“ Plesiosaurus from 
Lias of Whitby,” by Mr. F. J. Foot; “ Flint Implements from the ‘ Oyle’ 
Cave, Tenby,” by Mr. G. N. Smith; “ Scutes of Labyrinthodon from 
Keuper Bone-Breccia of Pendock,” by Rev. W. 8. Symonds; ‘ New 
Fossil Fishes from Old Red Sandstone, Caithness,” by Mr. C. W. Peach. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


Grotoaicat Socrrty.— November 5, 1862.—Professor A. C. Ramsay, 
President, in the chair.—1. ‘‘ Descriptions of some Fossils from India, 
discovered by Dr. Fleming of Edinburgh.” By Dr. L. de Koninck. 

The author gave a detailed description of 44 species of fossils from the 
western end of the salt-range of the Punjaub, on the right bank of the 
Indus, discovered by Dr. J. Fleming and Mr. W. Purdon. The same 
mixture of Mesozoic with Paleozoic types observed by Mr. Davidson, who 
described the Brachiopoda (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xviii. p. 25), was 
also noticed by the author in these fossils. He therefore suggests the pos- 
sibility of a further examination of the strata showing the existence of two 
intimately associated formations, belonging respectively to the Carboni- 
ferous and Lower Mesozoic periods. 

2. “On a Deposit containing Diatomacer, Leaves, etc., in the Iron-ore 
Mines near Ulverston.” By Miss E. Hodgson. 

The object of this paper was to show that this deposit, which was first 
described by Mr. Bolton in the Society’s Journal, vol. xviii. p. 274, and 
considered by him to be of lacustrine origin, was deposited in a large 
cavern or chain of caverns by a subterranean stream originating probably 
in a brook called the “ Poaka Beck.” 

3. “On the Geology of a Part of the Masulipatam District.” By Capt. 
F. Applegarth, Madras Army. 

4. ‘On the Association of Granite with the Tertiary Strata near King- 
ston.” By J. G. Sawkins, Esq., F.G.S. 

A granitic formation traverses Jamaica in a direction from 8.E. to N.W., 
being the same as that of the earthquake-shocks. It pierces the Carbona- 
ceous series, and also the Tertiary strata, whence the author concludes that 
it is of Tertiary age. 

Mawncuester GrotocicaL Socrety.—June 24th.—Mr. Hull, of the 
Geological Survey, drew attention to the presence of Goniatites, Avicu- 
lopecten papyraceus, and other marine shells in the upper coal-measures at 
Dukinfield. It has always been considered that these marine fossils were 
confined to the lower coal-measures, and to the series of strata below the 
Arley mine. 

Mr. Binney delivered an address ‘‘On the Geology of Manchester.” 
The surface around Manchester was covered by drift, except in the valleys, 
where the rivers have cut through the drift. The drift of the district Mr. 
Binney divides into— 

1. Valley gravel.—A bed of coarse gravel, composed of various-sized Azoie, 
Paleozoic, and a few Triassic rocks, well rounded, parted with layers of 


4.64: THE GEOLOGIST. 


fine sand, without pebbles, exhibiting every appearance of having been de- 
posited by water; most frequently stratified, but sometimes unstratified. 
It has generally two well-marked terraces above the waters of the present 
rivers, as well as some minor terraces. On the top of this is generally 
found about three or four feet of silty loam. 
2. Forest sand and gravel.—A deposit of sharp forest sand, parted with 
layers of gravel of same rocks as No. 1, and having every appearance of a 
regular deposit by water, distinguishable only from No. 1 by its being 


Fig. 1. 
found at greater elevations, containing more sand, and being generally 
more regularly stratified. It sometimes contains thin beds of “till” lying in 
it, and much drifted coal. 

3. Till. Till,” a mass of strong brown clay, in which are mingled the 
same kinds of rocks as those in Nos. 1 and 2, of sizes from six tons in 
weight to small pebbles, some rounded and partly rounded, and others 
quite angular, especially coal-measure and magnesian limestone rocks, with- 
out any order of deposition, great and small stones being mixed together 
indiscriminately, quite impervious to water, and well known as valuable 
brick clay, and from its being the deposit which yields striated or scored 
stones. Several beds of fine laminated silt and patches of sand are found 
in it. | 

4. Lower gravel.—A hed of sand or coarse gravel, having the pebbles 
(consisting of the same kinds of rocks as Nos. 1, 2, and 3) well rounded, 
sometimes, but not always, occurring under the brick clay, often stratified, 
and at other times unstratified. It affords good springs of bright water. 

Probably the deposits mentioned above will not always be found in the 
perfect order there laid down; no doubt some of them may be wanting at 
places, especially Nos. 4 and 2, which have often been removed. 

The kind of gravel found here is somewhat similar to that in the north 
of France yielding flint implements. Many things have been found in 
these gravels, but have always been considered of doubtful origin. Some 
of the old beds of the course of the present river Irwell have been dug 
out, but little attention has been given to collecting anything from them. 
It is to be wished that attention were directed to these lowest terrace beds, 
with a view of ascertaining whether they contain any flit implements or 
fossil remains. Mr. Barr had stated that he had found a marine shell 
(Cardiwm edule) in the gravel of Stockport. On the top of the gravel is a 
bed of silt, three or four feet thick, and this seems to have been derived 
from floods, when the river overflowed its banks and deposited the silt. 
In the upper terrace there are very often found thin beds of peat, and beds 
of silt between. 

The great body of gravel, about the level of the waters of the Irwell, has 
been moved about in the valley as the river has changed its course from 
time to time. <A singular curve of the river occurs below Kersall Moor, 
which shows that the river may have gone straight across from Douglas 
mill to the place where the present suspension bridge is erected, a few 
hundred years ago, for the river on the Salford side is now encroaching 
on the Broughton side, and the Broughton side is encroaching on that of 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 465 


Salford at other points. From some of the old plans connected with the 
Broughton estate it is more than probable that evidence might be got as 
to what was really the course of the river 200 or 300 years ago, and thus 
show the rate of change of the river-course per year. Several acres of 
Salford are found on the Kersall side, and about the same quantity of 
Kersall on the Salford side of the river, clearly proving that there have been 
some singular changes since maps were made; for the river was doubtless 
once the boundary line of the two townships. ‘The waters in’ the valley 
there have, no doubt, been of much greater volume than they are at present, 
or they could not have removed the materials from the spaces between the 
terraces. 

The brick clay, or ‘till,’ has been proved to be thirty yards thick, and 
contains fragments and boulders from azoic and paleozoic rocks of nearly 
all kinds, with a few secondary rocks. 

In the neighbourhood of Tib Lane, the bed of clay is parted with quick- 
sand, and the till seems gradually to go out and the quicksand to come in. 
This quicksand is found in several parts of Manchester. <A singular fact 
S in regard to the junction of the sand and the till 
a sometimes presents itself, namely. the wedge-like 
SSS —— et manner in which the sand sometimes enters the till 

Fig. 2. at the junction of the two (Fig. 2). 

The last bed of drift is the lower sand and gravel. This formation is 
not much seen in the neighbourhood of Manchester. It is only in sinking 
wells and boring holes that it is occasionally met with. It would be de- 
sirable to know what sort of fossils, if any, are to be found in it. ‘The bed 
has been sometimes found to be ten or eleven yards thick. 

The Secondary beds found in the neighbourhood of Manchester consist 
of Trias rock. In some parts of the town it is from 200 to 300 yards thick. 


_ The paleozoic rocks are the Permian and Carboniferous. 


In the discussion which followed, Mr. Atkinson said it had occurred to 
him that this valley gravel was really marine gravel, and that there had 
been a communication with the sea up the valleys of the Mersey and Irwell. 
Manchester, he added, was very few feet above the level of the sea; and 
the tide came even now to Warrington. 

Mr. Binney stated that most of the points even of the valley gravel are 
about 100 feet above the level of the sea. 

Mr. Hull dissented from the opinion that these valley gravels were of 
marine origin. He formerly entertained the opinion that they were, but 
there was one reason which he could advance which appeared to him to be 
decisive that they were old river terraces, and that was the fact that the 
slope of their upper surfaces coincides with the present siope of the river. 
If the valley gravels were old sea or marine gravels they would necessarily 
be very nearly horizontal, and at any rate the change in the level of the 
upper surface would necessarily be very slight, because in order that the 
sea should ascend to such a height as 160 feet above the present level, it 
would require a general submergence of land. 

Mr. Plant said he could corroborate the views of Mr. Hull relative to 
the freshwater character of the upper gravel, from excavations made when 
sinking for the foundations of the Museum in Peel Park. 

Lonpon Instirurrion.—A very interesting course of six lectures, on 
“The Operation of Heat in the Production of Geological Phenomena ; 
with reference, principally, to those of Voleanos and Earthquakes,” is now 
being delivered by E. W. Brayley, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. The syllabus is 
so full that it will prove useful to many of our readers :— 

Lecrore I. (Nov. 12.)—Volcanos and earthquakes the most obvious manifestations of the 

VoL. V. 3 0 


4.66 THE GEOLOGIST. 


nternal heat of the globe at the present epoch of its physical history. Their philosophy 
constitutes one great division of the science of Ienzous GroLocy, Plutonic action, 
an effect of the same cause, but deeply and entirely subterranean, the subject of another 
division of that science. These lectures appropriated chiefly to the former. Succession 
of voleanic phenomena. The Hruptions, principally of intensely-heated aqueous vapour 
in torrents mingled with mineral matter, through fissures in the superficial crust of the 
globe, by which volcanos are formed, aud in which their characteristic phenomena con- 
sist. May be subaérial or submarine; on the land or the bed of the ocean. ‘The co- 
ruscations of lightning observed in volcanic eruptions. The circumstances of their pro- 
duction formerly shown to be analogous to those of the electric sparks from high-pressure 
steam issuing from a boiler, first described by Sir W. G. Armstrong. The source of 
electricity in that case proved by Dr. Faraday to be the friction of water and steam 
against other bodies. ‘Lhe entire process of excitation identical in both cases, and vol- 
cante lightning, therefore, probably the greatest example of frictional electricity in Na- 
ture. Accumulation of materials ejected in volcanic eruptions into a conical mountain, 
perforated by a kind of chimney, terminating at the summit in a funnel-shaped cavity 
called the crater. Intimate nature and immediate causes of eruptions. Characters and 
history of the currents of /ava or molten rock, which rise up the chimney into the crater, 
and stream from it down the exterior of the cone, or flow through fissures in its flanks or 
near the base. Alternate production and repletion of the crater, Paroxysmal, conti- 
nued, and permanent eruptions. Various phases of volcanic action. Active and extinct 
volcanos. 

Lecture II. (Nov. 19.)—Products of voleanic eruptions, aeriform, liquid, and solid; the 
latter being of all dimensions, from blocks of enormous size to fine sand. Subsequent con- 
solidation of comminuted and pulverulent ejections, often exceeding the lavas in collective 
bulk, by means of water, into the substance called volcanic tufa or tuff. Many kinds of 
minerals ejected, others formed during or after eruptions, Lavas are of two kinds, the 
granular or stony, and the vitreous or glassy; their varieties constituting an important 
class of the Ienrous Rocks of geologists. The former may be arranged in general into 
three groups, basaltic, greystone, and trachytic lavas, all which are essentially aggregates 
of crystalline minerals, chiefly felspar, leucite, olivine, augite or pyroxene, and probably 


some others containmg combived water; these minerals, chemically, being silicates of © 


various earthy and alkaline bases, including oxide of iron, which also occurs separately 
as a mineral element of lavas in the form of titaniferous magnetic oxide of that metal. The 
peculiar nature of the fluidity of the Stony Lavas indicated by Dolomieu; but their true hy- 
droplastic condition in the flowing state first, observed and described, and the functions of 
water and its vapour in volcanic phenomena first adequately recognized, by Mr. G. Poulett 
Scrope. Probable agency in the production and effusion of lavas of the correlation and 
mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical force. The stony lavas apparently formed 
beneath the volcano by the disaggregation of previously existing lavas or other erystal- 
line rocks, effected by the expansive force, pressure, and solvent action of steam at a high 
temperature. This process a cooling one, and therefore the materials resulting from it 
not fused, but mingled with water and steam into a kind of ignited or incandescent mud, 
in which the fluid element, water or aqueous vapour, exists in a peculiar state of adhesion 
to and intervention between the surfaces of the mineral crystals and other solid particles. 
The Glassy Lavas (of three principal kinds, called obsidian, pitchstone, and pearlstone), 
formed originally by the opposite process of the conversion of mechanical force into heat, 
resulting in true melting or igneous fusion, at a still higher temperature than that at 
which the stony lavas become flowing. When steam is developed in them they become 
a kind of froth, which solidifies into pumice. Some plutonic or hypogenous crystalline 
rocks, such as granite, also formed by a process of true fusion, in which water is an es- 
sential agent; but these are of a distinct nature from that of lavas, and if they pass 
through the hydroplastic condition are not raised in it to the surface of the earth, though 
they supply part of the materials for subsequent disintegration or fusion into lavas. All 
igneous rocks, however, graduate into each other in a manner variously related to their 
chemical constitueuts and composition, or those of the minerals which constitute them, 
and to the temperature at which they are formed and the time occupied in their solidifi- 
cation. Occasional sudden re-incandescence of lava, with explosive discharge of steam, 
Jong after it has ecased to flow and become consolidated, being apparently the occur- 
rence, on a small scale, of the essential physical process of eruption. 


PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 467 


Lecrurw IIT. (Nov. 26.)—Voleanos mountains of ejection and accumulation, but not 
of elevation. Researches on this subject of Mr. Scrope, Sir Charles Lyell, and M. H. de 
Saussure. Peculiar conical form and structure of volcanic mountains, their disposition 
in groups or lines connected with fissures in the earth’s superficial crust, and Geographi- 
eal Distribution. May be slowly or rapidly produced, but, when formed on the land, 
are always of long duration. Have probably existed at all known geological periods, and 
some which were active in the later ‘Tertiary or Cainozotic eras are active now (as Etna), 
while others are extinct (as the volcanos of Central France and Asia Minor). One vol- 
canie cone may envelope and bury others in its ejections, or one chain of voleanic vents 
may overwhelm another under its lavas and tuffs, and so preserve them as a part of it- 
self, as observed in Madeira by Sir Charles Lyell and M. Hartung; but as volcanic 
cones cannot in any other sense become subterranean, nor long remain beneath the sea, 
there are not any Fossil Volcanos. Of those, therefore, which were active in the Meso- 
zoic and Palieozoie eras of geology, certain produc ts only remain. Such products abun- 
dant in Britain, as exemplified in the middle series of Cambrian Slates, and the Western 
Islands of Scotland. Jn what manner volcanos are related to the elevation of the land 
and of other mountains, and to the production of the actual surface of the globe, Pro- 
bably only the features of that surface produced by the direct action of ‘the internal 
forces, as recently indicated by Mr. Jukes. Enormous mass of materials transferred by 
them from below to the surface. 

Lecture IV. (Dee. 3.)—Voleanos not the cause of earthquakes nor earthquakes of 
volcanos, as commonly supposed ; but both the “ manifestations of a common force under 
different conditions,” or the partial effects of a common cause, or of a common series of 
causes, originating in the internal heat of the globe. Particular history of some of the 
most remarkable ~“earthquakes.—Those of Lisbon, November Ist, V5 5, Calabria and 
Sicily, February and March, 1753: Riobamba, in Peru, February 4th, | 1797, the greatest 
earthquake whose effects have been observed ; Chilé, February 20th, 1835, and concomi- 
tant volcanic phenomena; Southern Italy, December 16th, 1857. Succession of earth- 
quake phenomena when taking place on land or under the ocean. The ground and all 
objects resting upon it suddenly moved backwards and forwards by an alternate horizon- 
tal motion, accompanied by a vertical or upward and dowuward motion. Duration of 
the shock. A continuous violent tremor often felt in addition. Great sea-wave attend- 
ing earthquakes. Sounds which accompany them when subterranean fractures occur. 
Earthquakes do not occasion permanent elevation or depression of the land or sea-bed 
(for reasons to be explained in the next lecture), contrary to what is often affirmed by 
geologists, though such changes of level may take place at the same time. Occur over 
all parts of the earth’s surface, but certain areas of land and sea more subject to them 
than others. Geographical distribution of these areas, or Seismic regions, and its rela- 
tion to that of voleanos. In what manner the occurrence of earthquakes and the erup- 
tions of volcanos are related. Alleged and possible influence of the unequal attraction of 
the moon, and of the varying pressure of the atmosphere on the occurrence of carth- 
quakes. Certain districts of Great Britain subject to slight earthquake-shocks at the 
present time. 

Lecture V. (Dec. 10.)—The philosophy of earthquakes constitutes the new depart- 
ment of science termed Setsmonoecy. Analysis of their phenomena. ‘The shock, or earth- 
quake-wave, a true roll, or continued undulation of the solid crust of the earth. Earth- 
quake-motion shown to be undulatory, or wave-like, by Michell, about a century ago ; 
but erroneously assimilated by him to that of ordinary liquid superficial waves, such as 
those of the sea, which it only apparently resembles. The Dynamics of Harthquakes first 

explained, and the true nature of their motion, as being that of a Wave of Elastic Com- 
pression, demonstrated, by Mr. Robert Mallet, in 1846. - Waves of elastic compression 
may be communicated to, or originate within, the substance of matter of every kind, 
aeriform, liquid, and solid ; as the atmosphere, the waters, and the earth; becoming sen- 
sible as sound, in all three mediums, and also, in the case of the earth-wave, as Se/smie 
or earthquake phenomena. ‘These waves consist of an alternate condensation and rare- 
faction of the medium; the particles of fluid or solid alternately approaching and receding 
from each other, in continuous succession, and in all directions from the central or 
focal point where the impulse takes place which gives origin to the wave. An earth- 
quake the transit or passage of such a wave, or of a succession of such waves, through 


468 THE GEOLOGIST. 


the substance and surface of the disturbed country, with immense rapidity, from a focal 
point at a considerable depth. The velocity of the wave-transit very great (above 
thirteen miles in a minute), but that of the particles in wave-movement comparatively 
very small. The earthquake-wave, and, when subterranean sounds occur, the sound- 
wave, in the same geological formations, travel with the same speed, the sound-waves 
through the sea and the air somewhat slower. Why no permanent change of the level 
of the ground can be occasioned by an earthquake. The original subterranean impulse 
percussive, or of the nature of a blow, and probably caused by the sudden formation, ex- 
trication from hydroplastic matter, expansion, or condensation of steam of high tension 
(high pressure), the heat of which, either directly or mediately and virtually, becomes 
mechanical foree. ‘That force may also be exerted through the instrumentality of the 
molten rock itself, and originate earthquakes by the violent fracture of strata or other 
solid masses of the crust. Means and instruments for observing and recording the oc- 
currence, direction, and velocity of earthquake-movements, called Sezsmometers and Seis- 
moscopes, some of them self-registering. Application of the electric telegraph to Sezsmo- 
metry. Nomenclature of the ‘ Elements” of Seismology. The first exact mvestigation 
of the phenomena of a great earthquake made by Mr. Mallet, in the case of that of 
Southern Italy in 1857. Principal results of that investigation. Obligations of science 
on this new subject, regarded as one of accurate inquiry, due to the British Association 
for its Advancement, and the Royal Society, to Mr. R. Mallet and Dr. J. W. Mallet, 
and also to Professor Alexis Perrey, of Dijon, Mr. D. Milne, and other contemporary in- 
quirers. 

Lecture VI. (Jan. 7, 1863.)—Central or internal heat of the globe ; its mechanical and 
physical and its chemical effects. Its operation, both direct and by the correlative forces 
into which it is converted, in the production of Plutonic and that of Volcanic and Seismic 
phenomena respectively. Compatibility, convergence, and probable identification of the 
thermotic theories of those phenomena, founded on the old conception of a primitive 
internal heat, with the theory which refers them to chemical action, originally proposed 
by Sir H. Davy, and advocated by Dr. Daubeny, Professor Bunsen, and other chemists 
and geologists of the present time; as argued in previons Lectures on Igneous Geology. 
The latter theory, thus regarded, supplies the superficial cause of high temperature in 
the earth’s crust, shown, by the recent experimental and mathematical investigations of 
Mr. W. Hopkins, to be required, in order to account for the observed increase of tempe- 
rature in descending within the earth. Volcanos and earthquakes, accordingly, probably 
the immediate results of a secondary and local generation of heat, arising from a circula- 
tion of Chemical affinities in the alternate Reduction and Oxidation of Combustible Bases, 
and taking place in cavities of the superficial solid crust, in which earthquake-waves ori- 
ginate, and of which volcanos are communications with the surface. Such chemical ac- 
tion excited by the transfer of the earth’s central heat towards the surface, occasioned by 
the change of position of the matter constituting the superficial crust, effected by the 
action of the Sun upon the exterior of the Globe. Theoretical indication, formerly ad- 
duced, of another source of terrestrial temperature, originating in the Correlation of 
Forees, and which also would excite chemical action and give rise to the same series 
of effects and phenomena. Transition from plutonic to voleanic action. Quantity 
of matter ejected by volcanos on the surface of the globe probably equivalent to that 
ii which the series of physical processes commenced by the solar action in the atmo- 
sphere and the waters terminates by depositing on the bed of the sea, in the form of 
sedimentary strata. 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 


Tue Kerrier SKutt.—With reference to the observations made by 
Mr. C.C. Blake and Professor Busk on this subject, I enclose the follow- 
ing further information. Captain Barrie, R.N., writes to me, under date 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 4.69 


October 2, 1862:—‘‘I have been to the place where the Kellet skull was 
found, but, after a careful search, have been unable to pick up more than 
_two small fragments of bones, I know not of what bones. The place where 
the skeleton was found is rather remarkable. The limestone rock here- 
abouts is generally split or rift in parallel lines, and greatly seamed on the 
surface, with holes, that make walking very dangerous when the surface 
is slippery. In one of these clefts, not much more than five feet long and 
one wide, lay the skeleton. It was some three or four feet from the top, 
and partially sheltered from the weather by the sides of the rock. At the 
bottom of the cleft are some bits of loose débris, and perhaps some frag- 
ments of bone among them, but I could only just reach a few, with my 
long arm bared and stretched to the utmost. The peasantry had a sort of 
holiday over the relics three months ago, and the children washed up 
many bones. They then put sods over the hole. There are perhaps other 
pieces down the narrow holes, which no human being can reach without 
breaking up the rock. What seems strange to me is, that the hole is so 
shaped as to have left no spare room even for a small human body. It 
must have been forced in and tightly jammed into its place. This has 
given rise to the idea that the individual was murdered; and the small 
size of the hole would lead me to think that the body was that of a woman 
or undersized man.—Wiuti1amM Boxwaert, F.R.G.S. 

Gavtt Brack Vren.—In the Jermyn Street Museum, I lately observed 
a few fossils marked “Gault Black Ven” (lyme Regis). They were in 
dark clay, very like the Gault of Surrey. Could any of your correspon- 
dents inform me what is the precise position of this bed, whether above or 
below the deposits with ‘‘ cowstones,” as I do not remember having seen 
it mentioned in the papers of either Sir H. De la Beche or Mr. Godwin- 
Austen ? 

Of the fossils exhibited I find that the majority are also found in the 
whetstone beds of Blackdown, while only one (Jnoceramus concentricus) 
is given in the lists in Jukes’s ‘ Manual,’ as occurring in the Gault else- 
where. 

The identification of any one of the beds in the greensand outliers of 
the West of England with deposits exposed within the Wealden denu- 
dation would have an important bearing on the as yet unsolved question 
of the age of the Blackdown beds, and if undoubted Gault has been met 
with at Lyme Regis, a public notice of the fact would, I think, be in- 
teresting to students of the Lower Cretaceous formations.—C. Evans. 

[A paper on these beds will shortly be read at the Geological Society.— 
Ep. Got. | 

Lower Siturtan Rocks 1n Meatu.—The ‘ Dublin Quarterly Journal’ 
for October publishes a Paper by Mr. W. H. Baily, F.G.S., “ On the Oc- 
currence of some characteristic Graptolites and other Fossils indicating 
certain Divisions of the Lower Silurian Rocks in the Counties of Meath, 
Tipperary, and Clare.” The fossils which drew the author’s attention to 
the subject were a small collection from black-green slates at Bellewstown 
Hill, amongst which were several specimens of the double Graptolite, 
Didymograpsus Murchisonii, so characteristic of the Llandeilo flags of 
North Wales. The fossils noted by Mr. Baily from this and other imme- 
diate localities, although not all from the same bed, are, from black slates, 
Diplograpsus pristis, D. scalariformis, Orthis calligramma, O. alata, 
Discina, Graptolithus Sedgwickii, G. Nillssoni, two species of Lingula and 
Siphonotreta micula; from grey slates, Didymograpsus Murchisonii, 
Diplograpsus pristis, Lingula attenuata. Some grey and brown sandy 
shales afforded fragments of Acidaspis, Asaphus, small univalves of the 


470 THE GEOLOGIST. 


genera Cyclonema Raphistoma, Hcculiomphalus, several_ brachiopods, 
amongst them Leptena sericea, Strophomena depressa, Theca, and the 
branching variety of small coral, Stenopora fibrosa. These latter beds Mr. 
Baily considers of Bala or Caradoe age, and therefore to overlie the Grap- 
tolite slates. Other Lower Silurian localities and fossils are noted in these 
districts in the paper. 

Grotocy or Morrat.—In the ‘ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal’ 
for July, Mr. Wm. Carruthers, F'.L.S., has described the geology of Mof- 
fat, in Dumfriesshire. Within a radius of four or five miles round the vil- 
lage, Silurian, Permian, a trap dyke, and the Boulder clay and gravel are 
met with. Peat also is abundant in the district. In the low grounds it 
contains the trunks of trees of species still growing in the district, namely 
hazel and birch. 

Fossit Man.—La Salle Presse states that, in Macoupin county, Illinois, 
the bones of a man were recently found on a coal-bed capped with two 
feet of slate rock, ninety feet below the surface of the earth before the run 
cut any part. The bones, when found, were covered with a crust or coat- 
ing of hard glossy matter, as black as coal itself, but when scraped away 
left the bones white and natural. 

Bone Caves oF Matra.—The excellent account of the fossiliferous caves 
of Malta, by Mr. Andrew Leith Adams, surgeon, 22nd Regt., read before 
the Dublin Royal Society in November last year, is printed in the October 
number of the ‘ Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science.’ The caves described 
are on Maghlak, 300 feet above present sea-level, Ghar Hassan’s, and one 
near Zebbug; and mammalian relics are noted from Crendi, Dingh, and 
Gozo. ‘“ We know not,” says Mr. Adams, “‘and may never probably dis- 
cover with any degree of accuracy, when the important phenomena oc- 
curred which ended in forming the Malta and Sicily of our times. ‘That 
there was a connection between the two islands and Africa during the later 
Tertiary epochs seems highly probable—the fact of the African elephant 
having been found near Palermo, as well as complete skulls of a species of 
hyeena very like the animal of Africa, leads us towards the supposition that 
there was also a union between Sicily and that continent.” Two plates, 
containing figures of the skull, teeth, lower jaw, etc., of Myoxus Meli- 
tensis, accompany the paper. 

THe Exuisition Froc.—Sir,—Lately there have been a great many 
letters in the ‘Times’ and other newspapers, regarding the frog stated to 
have been found in coal that has been displayed in the Exhibition. The 
different writers have different opinions, but amongst all of them I did 
not see the name of one practical geologist. May I ask one question—In 
the formation of coal, would there not have been an amount of heat pro- 
duced that would inevitably have burnt the frog to a cinder?—C. W. 

[In Vol. I. of this magazine, our inquirer will find a convincing argu- 
ment against the absurd idea of living frogs embedded in coal. ‘The 
reptiles of the Coal period were of labyrinthodont structure, and if it 
had been possible that a frog could have been embedded alive for myriads 
of years, which of course it is not, it would have had distinguishing laby- 
rinthodont characters, and would not have been of a common recent 
Batrachian species. It does not follow, nor is it likely, that a high tempe- 
rature must have been produced in the formation of coal. Many chemical 
operations accomplished speedily by high temperatures are effected natu- 
rally by /ong-continued action at lower temperatures.—Ep. Gxot. | 

Human Remains at EnGinout.—M. Malaise, a Belgian paleontolegist, 
exploring in the province of Liége, has recently discovered certain frag- 
ments in a cave at Engihoul, which are valuable as evidence. The cave. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. ATL 


contains a bed of porous and pebbly silt, varying in thickness from two to 
three feet, under which lies a layer of stalagmite less than two inches thick, 
and it was while examining the soil beneath the stalagmite that the frag- 
ments in question were found. They consist of portions of two lower jaw- 
bones and three pieces of skull. In each jawbone the last three molars 
remain, all but two of which are much worn, and one is decayed. The 
pieces of skull are identified as fragments of the occipital and parietal bones; 
one of the latter is remarkably thick (eight millimétres). Pains were taken 
at the time of the discovery to observe that in their colour, degree of de- 
composition and position, the human bones were in no way to be distin- 
guished from the other animal remains which were confusedly accumulated 
under the stalagmite. 

Mammatian Rematns.—Numerous elephants’ teeth were dug up some 
years since at Fisherton Anger, near Salisbury. (Preface to Miss Benett’s 
‘Catalogue of Wiltshire Fossils.’) 

Fossir Mammaita.—In the Museum at Leicester, are :—Teeth of H/e- 
phas antiquus (?), from the gravel at Barrow-on-Svar, found in 1858 ; LE. pri- 
migenius, from the gravel at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, found at 
a depth of 13 feet; ditto, from near Kegworth; ditto, found at Leicester, 
on the site of the Infirmary. . 

Leighton Buzzard :—Llephas primigenius (molar, tusk, and part of a 
leg-bone), found in 1860, at Mr. Doggett’s gravel-pit, at the end of Leake 
Street, Leighton Buzzard. 

A molar of Hlephas, found in gravel on the banks of the canal, not far 
from Linslade Church, near Leighton Buzzard, is in the Museum at Ox- 
ford. T. R.. J. 


FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 


The publication of the ‘Animaux Fossiles et Géologie de l’Attique,’ 
after the researches made by M. Albert Gaudry in 1855-56 and 1860, has 
been commenced. The first part treats successively of the quadrumana, 
carnivora, rodentata, pachydermata, ruminantia, edentata, aves, and rep- 
tilia of which he has found the remains. The second part is devoted to 
the geology of Attica. In the parts issued, the description of the Misopi- 
thecus of Pentelicus, with hypothetical details of its aspect and habits, is 
most interesting. This monkey was half a yard long from the head to the 
extremity of the pelvis, and 30 centimetres in height. These are the di- 
mensions of this little macacus; its tail would have exceeded the length of 
its body, and it is more likely that it scrambled along the rocks rather 
than climbed trees; and that it lived in troops. It masticated hike man, 
making the lower jaw glide inside the upper. At the period during which 
it lived, the temperature of Attica would appear to have been higher than 
at present. The work, edited by M. Savy, will extend to fifteen parts. 

During the past month, Count d’Archiae has presented to the French 
Academy a map of the portions of Savoy, Piedmont, and Switzerland, in 
the vicinity of Mont Blanc, by M. Alphonse Favre, Professor at the 
Academy of Geneva. 


472 


REVIEWS. 


Carte Géologique du Département de la Loire-Inférieure. Par M. 
Cailliaud. Leipzig: J. Rothschild. 


Tt is with much pleasure that we notice so excellent a local map as the 
one before us by M. Cailliaud; the result of fifteen years of excursions, 
during which period that gentleman has paid close attention to every im- 
portant excavation that has been made in the department of the Loire- 
Inférieure. The authoritative specimens, moreover, upon which he has 
founded the stratigraphical divisions of his map, amounting to upwards of 
four thousand, have been placed in the museum of Nantes, where they 
are not only a standing proof of the value of M. Cailliaud’s labours but 
can also be usefully consulted by all who have any interest in the geology, 
the arts, manufactures, and agriculture of the district. 

The geological constitution of the department affords two well-marked 
divisions. In the northern part more than a third of its extent belongs 
chiefly to the transition rocks ; the line of demarcation being east and west, 
following the Loire, Ingrande, to beyond Ancenis, Ligné, Blain,and Drefféar. 
The opposite portion, containing two-thirds of the area, is divided centrally 
by the valley of the Loire from east to west. Its chief geological features 
are primitive formations, or azoic crystalline rocks. Notraces of volcanic 
rocks are met with. The rock divisions recognized begin with the lowest 
or Primary period; these are gneiss, crystalline micaceous schist, and 
granite, into which the former often pass by insensible gradations. Inthe 
quarries of Saint-Gervais the granite 1s seen partly stratified ; and protogen 
granite is observed at Sorinieres. The ordinary direction of the granite 
and gneiss is N.W. and S.E. The map shows 36 granitic regions; 16 of 
eurite, more or less porphyritic ; 20 of amphibolite ; 59 serpentine ; several 
traps; 25 of Lydian quartz; 10 of diorite and eclogite, the latter con- 
taining garnets. M. Lory has described, in the Transactions by the French 
Geological Society the occurrence at La Paquelais, near Monitoir, of 
a leptynoid and granitoid gneiss in regularly bedded and almost vertical 
strata. 

Next are noticed the rocks of the ‘“‘ Période Phylladienne.”” The Silurian 
rocks occupy a sixth of the area of the northern part. Numerous open 
mines of hydroxide of iron are worked. The prevailing direction of the 
beds in the west of the department is W. 10° to N.E. 15°, 10° to 15° S., 
plunging 45° to 50° to the S.E. A band of silurian quartzite is found to- 
wards the north, and a limestone-marble is met with at D’Erbray and Saint 
Julien de Vouvantes, belonging to the Lower Devonian. 

The Upper Silurian, in its vicinity, is said to contain masses of crystalline 
marble distinct from the Devonian limestone, and bearing fossils character- 
istic of the third Silurian fauna of Barrande. Other Devonian beds occur 
at Ingrande, Ligne, and the banks of the Loire, ete. Half a kilométre 
N.E. of Brulis the schist-zone envelopes a second caleareous marble; and 
at Kcochére the grey or pinkish rock is often mingled with beds of greenish 
schist. This deposit is considered to be middle Devonian by Dr. Bureau, 
who has found in it some good fossils characteristic of a higher level than 
that of Brulis. 

North of Ancenis Upper Devonian rocks occur; and north, again, of 
these beds is the argillaceous sandstone known as grauwacke, with quart- 
zose pudding-stones and clay nodules. The superficial portion of these 
rocks shows vestiges of anthracitic schists and impressions of plants. 
Authracitic deposits occur at Doué in Anjou, at Effeterie, and Malabrit ; 


+ 


REVIEWS. 47T3 


and amongst the vegetable fossils, Pecopteris aqguilina and various Nevyo- 
pteris are recorded. Up to this point the geological succession of the for- 
mations has been unbroken; but on coming to the Secondary period 
we find the Permian, Triassic, and the Jurassic, or more than three- 
fourths of the Secondary division, missing. The upper part of the Secon- 
dary deposit is however found at the forest of Touvais, where the ceno- 
manien beds of the cretaceous formation appear; the white chalk, so 
common in ascending the Loire, in Touraine, being wanting in the depart- 
ment. The Tertiary age is represented by the Lower Eocene at Machecoul, 
Campbon, and other places; and the Upper Miocene at Vieillevigne, 
Laroux, Rottereau, etc. The upper Tertiary or Pliocene is absent. Of 
the quaternary deposits, the lower drift, marsh turbaries, and river-de- 
posits are met with, spread as usual superficially over various portions of 
the district. 

The topography of the map is seemingly very good, and as the number 
of geological explorers of this interesting region must necessarily be pro- 
portionately small, we trust that M. Cailliaud will find his labours pecu- 
niarily rewarded by the purchases by other travellers, to whom this map 
will prove a very useful companion for other than geological purposes. 


Die Wunder der Urwelt, eine populare Darstellung der Geschichte der 
Schipfung und des Urzustandes unseres Weltkorpers, etc. By Dr. 
W. +. U. Zimmermann. 8yvo. Berlin. 1861. 


The eighteenth part of this popular German treatise is before us, and is 
devoted to paleontology andastronomy. It forms one of a cheap elemen- 
tary series, each part price 8d., and composed of forty-eight pages. The 
typography and paper are rather better than the average in compilations of 
the class; the letterpress and illustrations much worse. This can be imagined 
when we inform our readers that the figure on page 5 of “* Klephas primige- 
mius (vorweltlicher Elephant)” is that of the Mastodon Ohioticus, although 
very badly drawn, especiaily in the knee-joints, and with an artificial eye 
put in the wrong place. A woodcut on page 16 is given, exhibiting a 
flint and a magnified Xanthidium by its side, which is labelled “ Feuerstein 
mit Seestern,’ while on the same page the triassic star-fish has the name 
“« Seestern”’ more correctly applied to it. On page 8, the two human 
skeletons from Guadaloupe are drawn side by side, but on wholly different 
scales, the one which is copied from Cuvier’s ‘ Ossemens Fossiles’ being 
about double the size of the drawing from the British Museum specimen. 
The impression which Dr. Zimmermann is kind enough to tell us he means 
for an ‘“‘ Unterkiefer eines Alligators,” and which is, no doubt, Alligator 
Hantoniensis, is perhaps the worse specimen of engraving we have ever 
seen, except the Plesiosawrus on the same page. The following statement 
is made :—‘‘ Hinem Ungeheuer dieser Art gehort das unter dem Namen Hy- 
drarchos gezeigte Knochengertist von 120 Fuss Lange.” The author is 
evidently not aware that later observers have reduced this 120 feet to 70. 
The best and only diagram of the earth’s strata which Dr. Zimmermann is 
able to give, is the section of the artesian well at Pentonville ; above which, 
a picturesque landscape of high mountains, a distant village, poplar-trees, 
and arailway train @ l’ Allemande are proudly displayed. But the vignette 
on page 1ismostremarkable. It represents an encounter between a miner 
armed with a pick, and a gigantic skeleton of something between a Ptero- 
dactyle and ajackdaw. ‘The whole thing is so fearfully grotesque, that we 
must forbear to harrow our readers’ feelings with its description. The 
cover of the work is a golden blaze of Paleontology, and is covered with 

VOL. V. 3.P 


474 THE GEOLOGIST. 


Plesiosauri spitting fire, Iguanodons with hook-noses, Pterodactyles which 
look wondrously like storks, and Hawaiian volcanos bubbling away merrily 
at the risk of engulfing the fossil scorpions at their brink. We hope that 
our German paleontologists really do not seriously promulgate this work 
in the hope of its diffusing elementary instruction amongst the masses of 
that profound-thinking nation. 


Ueber Placodus gigas, Agassiz, und Placodus Andriant. By Dr. Carl 
Friedrich Wilhelm Braun. 4to. Munster: Bayreuth. 1862. 


The work before us contains a detailed monograph of this most inter- 
esting genus, which was demonstrated by Owen, in the year 1858, to be a 
reptile, and removed from the class of fishes with which it had been classi- 
fied by Agassiz. The most interesting and novel part of the work is the 
following statement :— 

“‘ We find in the muschelkalk of the hill at Leineck peculiar flat, broad, 
polymorphic, small or large masses, sometimes a foot in length. They are 
composed of bluish-grey flint, in which are embedded numerous small 
particles of a darker colour, composed of the fossilized débris of shells, 
not larger than one line each. Examined microscopically, we detect a 
structure which leaves no doubt that they are the fragments of rather 
small and very convex shells. Sometimes we can also distinguish single 
teeth and scales of fishes of the same formation, namely, Psammodus, 
Hybodus, and Acrodus. We cannot doubt that these siliceous masses are 
coprolites, which must belong to Placodus, for no other saurian or fish of 
those triassic strata has been provided with a dentition adapted to crush 
hard shells, like those of Terebratula. 'The Placodus fed on hard-shelled 
mollusca, and occasionally on fish. It is interesting to compare Owen’s 
views on the nature of the food of those animals with our account, and to 
see how views gained from very opposite points of examination may per- 
fectly agree in the final result. R. Owen, guided by the arrangement 
and the structure of the teeth, gives us the following ingenious explana- 
tion.” : 

Then follows the well-known passage from Prof. Owen’s memoir, read 
before the Royal Society, the accuracy of which induction is corroborated 
by the German paleontologist. 


Apereu Géologique du Département de la Moselle. Par C. Fridrici, Pro- 
fesseur aux Ecoles Municipales de Metz. Leipzig: J. Rothschild. 
1862. 


An unpretentious little book, in a paper cover, illustrated with woodcuts 
of the most ordinary character, and creditable only, as engravings, to an 
engraver’s youngest apprentice. Put we do not mean to laugh at them 
either, although one of them 7s printed upside down ; anybody can see that, 
because houses do not adhere to roofs of caverns, but point their chimneys 
upwards in the air. “In producing this book,” says the author, ‘“‘ we do 
not pretend to offer a complete study of the geology of our department ; 
it 18 simply a réswmé made in the hope of its being useful to those of our 
pupils who, after having followed our lessons, would wish to make in our 
country application of that which they have learnt.” Indeed, Monsieur 
Fridrici, we have a respect for your humble little brochure, andif English 
schoolmasters would do as much, and as well, for their pupils as you have 
done for yours, we should have more and better young geologists than we 
have. Sincerely we echo your wish, that your efforts may bring forth the 
fruits you desire. 


INDEX. 


——c=, 


A 


Aleyonium(?) from Kentish Rag, 334. 

* Alps, The; or, Sketches of Life and 
Nature in the Mountains,’ by H. Ber- 
lepsch, translated by Rev. Leslie Ste- 
phen, 76. ; 

Ambléon, Ancient Lake-dwellings at, 
318. 

America, Human Remains in, 226. 

American Desert, Great, 430. 

Ansted, Prof., on Bituminous Schists, 
416. 

Anthracite, Pembrokeshire, 308. 

,in Silurian Rocks, 312. 

‘Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other 
Researches, in New Granada, EKcuador, 
Peru, and Chile,’ by W. Bollaert, re- 
viewed, 151. 

Antwerp, Geology of, M. Dejardin on, 
433. 


—_——— -— 


Archeology and Geology, 259. 

Ashford, Gravel at, 238. 

Australia, Eastern, Mesozoic and Per- 
mian Faune in, Rev. W. B. Clarke on, 
184. 

Australia, South, Geology of, 344. 

Australian Fauna, Mr. L. Becker on, 
432, 

Austria, Coal Mines, Products of, 409. 

, Geological Institute of, 347. 

—,, Publications of, 351. 

—, Geological Maps of, 348. 

, Succession of Strata in, 349. 

, Collections in Great Exhibi- 
tion, 351. 

Avicula contorta Beds, Abbé Stoppani 
on, 191 


B. 


Bank Top Colliery, A. Knowles on, 95. 

Barrettia monilifera, a New Hippurite, 
8. P. Woodward on, 372. 

Basalt, Decomposing, 239. 

Beach, Raised, so called, W. Carruthers 
on, 311. 

Beads, disputed, from the Drift, James 
Wyatt on, 233. 

———____—_—__—_—--, T. Ru- 

pert Jones on, 235. 


Beads, disputed, from the Drift, Dr. 
Wilkins on, 259. ~ 

Bensted, W. H., on Geology of Maid- 
stone, 294, 334, 375, 447. 

Bituminous Sandstone at Hogganfield, 
316. 


— Schists, Professor <Ansted 
on, 416. 

Blake, C. Carter, on Cainotherium, 32, 
124. 

on Fossil Monkeys, 81, 431. 

on Plesiosaurus in Chile, 110. 

on Crania of Most Ancient Races 
of Men, 205. 

-— on Kellet Skeleton, 424. 

on Past Life in South America, 

323. 

on Elephas texianus, 57. 

—— on Muskham and Heathery Burn 
Skulls, 215. 

on Heathery Burn Relics, 425. 

on Human Remains in River-beds, 

425. 

, Heathery Burn, Further Remarks 
on, 313. 

—_-—______——. Leicester, 314. 

, Sharks’ Teeth from Panama, 316. 

Bollaert, Wm., on Meteoric Iron from 
Copiapo, 89. 

Bone Beds, by G. Roberts, On, 237. 

Bos frontosus, Mackie on, 441. 

Boulder Split, at Little Cumbra, J. 
Smith on, 143. 

, Travelled, Note on, 108. 

Brachiopoda, Scottish Jurassic, Creta- 
ceous, and Tertiary, Davidson on, 443. 

Bracklesham Beds, Rey. O. Fisher on, 
37. 

British Association, Papers read at, 416, 
456, 462. 


C. 


Cainotherium, Structure of Skull of, C. 
C. Blake on, 32. 

mone , Further Notes on, C. C. 
Blake, 124. 

Cesium and Rubidium in Mica of 
Zinnwald, 317. 


Canada, Economie Geology of, 383. 


476 

Canadian Pleistocene Fossils, Prof. 
Dawson on, 200. 

Carboniferous Beds of Dinant, M. E. 
Dupont on, 111. 

of Oreton and Farlow, 70. 

Carruthers, W., on Section at Leith, 311. 

Castleton, Geology of, J. Taylor on, 86. 

Cave Deposits, Accumulation of, W. 
Pengelly on, 65. 

Celtic Boat at Cordon, 238. 

Chalk Ball of Human Workmanship, 
in “Ash Bed” of Paris Basin at 
Laon, M. Melleville on, 146. 

Chalk into Marble, Conversion of, Ex- 
periments on, by M. Rose, 149. 

Formation,Subdivisions of, query 

on by S. J. Mackie, 39. 

Fossil Fruits, 8. J. Mackie on, 1. 

Rock of Dover and Maidstone, 

8S. J. Mackie on, 80. 

, ‘* Two-foot Stratum ”’ in, 39. 

“Cheese Grotto,” The, in the Eifel, 
139. 

Chitons, from Mountain Limestone of 
Yorkshire, J. W. Kirkby on, 184. 

Classification of Animals, 272. 

Clay, Plasticity and Odour of, C. Tom- 
linson on, 94. 

Clitheroe, Pendle Hill, Geology of, G. 
H. Morton on, 95. 

Coal, W. Warington Smyth on, 268. 

, Austrian, Mines, 410. 

——., Coalpits, and Pitmen, Edward 
Wood on, 185. 

Field, North Staffordshire, J. 

Bradbury on, 261. 

Plants, Lancashire, E. W. Binney 

on, 70. 

, High Park Colliery, 414. 

— Measures of Ayrshire, 310. 

—— and Shale, 409. 

Trade, Statistics of, 73. 

Correspondence, 38, 65, 141, 235, 257, 
301, 341, 406, 450. 

Corylace in Lignite at Whiteinch, 271. 

Cotteswold Club, 351. 

Crag Shells, Beds of, redeposited at 
Yarmouth, C. B. Rose on, 67. 

Crania of Ancient Races of Men, C. 
Carter Blake on, 205. 

Cretaceous Group in Norfolk, C. B. 
Rose on, 94. 

Crustacea from Coal Measures and De- 
vonian Rocks, Nova Scotia, etc., Sal- 
ter on, 269. 

Crustacean, Stalk-eyed, from Coal Mea- 
sures, Huxley on, 309. 

Crustacean Track in Llandeilo Flags, at 
Chirbury, Salter on, 270. 


INDEX. 


Cyphosoma Keenigi, 8. P. Woodward 
on, 41. 


1D 


Da Portel, M. Troyes’ Excavations in 
Fossiliferous Cave of, 432. 
Davidson, T., on Scottish Brachiopoda, 
443. 
Dawson, Dr., on Devonian Land Flora 
of N. E. America, 268. 

Deer in England, 343. 

‘ Deposition of Lead Ore in Veins, etc., 
by W. Wallace, reviewed, 354. 

Devon Slates and Scottish Old Red, W. 
Pengelly on, 456. 

‘Devonian Fishes,’ by Prof. Huxley, 276. 

Fossils, Geological and Chro- 

nological Distribution of, in Devon 
and Cornwall, W. Pengelly, 10, 74. 

Diamonds, Cutting, J. Gregory on, 192. 

Diprotodon from Queensland, Professor 
Huxley on, 310. 

‘Die Wunder der Urwelt,’ etc., 473. 

Dracena Benstedii, 336, 401. 

Dragon Tree, The, of the Kentish Rag, 
8. J. Mackie on, 401. 

Drift with Arctic Shells, at Wolver- 
hampton, Rey. W. Lister on, 148. 

, at Accleton, 143. 

—— Deposits, Accumulation of, Prest- 
wich on, 189. 

at Manchester, 463. 

Fossils in Ireland, Wynne on, 428. 

Dudley Geological Society, 352. 

Du Noyer, Glacial Action in South of 
Ireland, 241. 

Dyas, Inapplicability of the Term, Sir R. 
I, Murchison on, 4. 


E. 


Earthquake Shocks at Cosenza, 110. 

————— Phenomena, query on, 109. 

Eifel Rocks, of Condroz, 278. 

Elephas Melitensis, 311. 

Texianus, n. s., described by 
C. C. Blake, 57. 

Elevation, Last, of Central Valley of 
Scotland, Date of, by A. Geikie, 183. 

Elliott, J., on Human Remains in 
Heathery Burn Cave, 47, 167. 

Eocene Upper Fossils, Isle of Wight, 
Dr. Sandberger on, 268. 

Eosaurus Acadianus, 432. 

Errata, p. 67, line 18, for “‘ Row” read 
** Rose.” 

, p- 40, line 37, for “ Bushes” 

read “ Branches.” 


INDEX. 


Errata, in July Number, in references to 
Plates, for “‘ XIII.” read “ XIV.,” for 
Sey.” read “ XTIT.® 

‘Essays on Natural History,’ etc, by 
John Hunter, Edited by Prof. Owen, 
434. 

Etruria, Human Skulls from, C. Carter 
Blake on, 219. 

Eurypterus and Allied Forms, J. Salter 
on, 269. 

Exhibition, International, Geological 
Notes in the, 306, 344, 382, 408. 

Falconer, Dr., on Maccagnone Cave, 260. 

—, on Disputed Affinities 
of Plagiaulax, 270. 

Faults, The Proving of, in Mining, A. 
Knowles on, 95. 

Feather Fossil at Solenhofen, 74. 

Fish in Magnesian Limestone, 430. 

Fishes, Death durmg Monsoon, Sir W. 
Deuison on, 31). 

Flint Arrowheads, (?) North Devon, N. 
Whitley on, 91. 

Implements, M. Gras’ Attack on 

Evidence of, 8. J. Mackie on, 281. 

in Drift, J. Evans on, 


274: 


on, 92. 


at Bedford, J. Wyatt 


of Yorkshire, E. Tin- 
dall on, 342; Mackie on, 343. 

, Ground, from Black- 
friars Bridge, Teddington Lock, and 
Battersea, 427. 

, H. Duckworth on, 


—_— 


186. 


—— 


from Reculver, 333. 
Flints, Shells in, 8. J. Mackie on, 166. 
Flint Veins, query on, 406, 450. 
Footprints in Carboniferous Rocks, 432. 
in Wealden, 8. H. Beckles on, 


——_ — 


310. 


in Cambrian 


, Supposed, 
Rocks, 322. 

Foreign Correspondence, 74. 

Intelligence, 96, 145, 191, 238, 

273, 317, 432, 471. 

Formic Acid in Springs of Carlsbrunn, 
318. 

Fox, Rev. W., on Separation of Isle of 
Wight, 452. 

Frocester, Geology of, 351. 

Frog, Exhibition, 470. 

Fruits from Kentish Rag, 337. 


G. 


Gault Black Vein, 469. 
* Geological Attempts in Greece prior 


477 


to Alexander, etc., by Dr. Schvarcz, 
357. 

Geological Society, 37, 70, 91, 92, 142, 
183, 266, 307, 463. 

, Anniversary, 142. 

——_——___—___-—__, Officers of, 142. 

, Subscription, 143. 

Geologists’ Association, 67, 94, 187, 
237. 


No. 8, reviewed, 319. 

Geological Tables, Professor King’s, 193. 

Geology briefly Explained, by Professor 
King, 112. 

— and Geography, Physical Con- 
nection between, F. P. Marrat on, 
95. 

‘Geology of Montbéliard,’ by Dr. Conte- 
jean, reviewed, 397. 

Gibb, Dr., on Reculvers, 330. 

Glacial Action in South of Ireland, Du 
Noyer on, 241. 

Origin of Swiss and American 

Lakes, Professor Ramsay on, 144. 

Striations at Liverpool, Edward 

Hull on, 70. 

- Surface Markings at Liverpool, 
G. H. Morton on, 95, 271. 

Glaciers, Ancient, of Italian Alps, G. de 
Mortillet on, 191. 

, Ancient, of Lombardy, M. 
Omboni on, 148. 

Glasgow Geological Society, 187, 264. 

Glauconite in Lower Silurian Rocks, 
200. 

‘Glossary of Mineralogy,’ by H. W. 
Bristow, 159. 

Gold-fields of Nova Scotia, Rev. D. 
Honeyman on, 269. 

Grampians, S., Geological Structure of, 
310. 

Grand Manil, Fossils of, Collected by 
Dr. Malaise, 274. 

Granites of Ireland, Experimental Re- 
searches on, Rey. 8. Haughton on, 309. 

Greenock and Loch Thorn, 264. 

Grindley, T., on Geology of Isle of Man, 
erate 

Griphosaurus, from Pappenheim, 198. 


, Proceedings of, 


H. 


Hampshire Basin, Query on, 72. 

Harkness, Professor, on Skiddaw Slate- 
veins, 4.20. 

Haughton, Rev. Professor, on Granites 
of Ireland, 309. 

Heathery Burn Cave, Stanhope, J. El- 
liott on, 34, 167. 


478 


Heathery Burn Cave, Human Remains 
from, Professor Huxley on, 201. 

, Human Remains 
from, C. Carter Blake on, 216. 

, Mammalian Re- 
mains from, C. Carter Blake on, 217. 
, Further Remarks 
by C. Carter Blake, 313. 

, Frontal Bone 


from, 425. 
Hull, E., on Isodiametric Lines of Car- 
boniferous Rocks, 93. 
Human Remains at Hast Ham, 187. 
—__——- at Battersea, 427. 
—_—_— in River-beds, 425. 
_—__- _____—— near Rome, 425. 
———-_ —_——— in Cornwall, 73. 
— at Greges, Neander- 
thal, Plau, Sennen, Mewslade, 205. 
at Axholme, 353. 
at Engihoul, 470. 
—__—___—__-——_ in Ireland, 353. 
—__—_—_———— in Valley of Kennet, 
317. 


—_— 


— 


——_ = 


at Leicester, 26, 314. 

at Mickleton, 396. 

——— at Paris, Creil, Rouen, 

Clermont, 275. 

—at Swalecliffe, Pease- 

marsh, Horton Kirby, 276. 

at Kellet, 239, 468. 

and Extinct Mam- 

malia, Tables of, 228. 

Huxley, Professor, Address to Geologi- 
cal Society, 142. 

on Human Remains from Trent 
Valley and Heathery Burn Cave, 201. 

Hyde and Marple, Geology of, 261. 


I. 


Ice-worn Rocks of Scotland, J. F. Ja- 
mieson on, 143. 

Iguanodon, Footprints of, at Hastings, 
by A. Tylor, 185. 

Isle of Wight, Separation of, from Main- 
land, 198, 453. 

Isodiametric Lines of Carboniferous 
Rocks, E. Hull on, 93. 

Insect Remains at Ulverston, 267. 

‘ Intellectual Observer,’ 119. 

Italy, Fossils from, in Exhibition, 408. 


J. 
Jones, T. Rupert, on Bracklesham Beds, 
59. 


es ee 


——— 


Jones, T. Rupert, on Disputed Beads in 
the Drift, 235. 

, on Tracks, Trails, and 

Surface Markings, 128, 454. 


INDEX. 


Jukes, Professor, on River-valleys of 
Ireland, 309. 


K. 


Kellet, Human Skeleton at, Professor 
Busk and C. C. Blake on, 4.24. 

W. Bollaert on, 468. 

Kentish Rag, Fossils from, 337. 

Kerridge Flags, E. W. Binney on, 69. 

King, Professor W., Geology explained 
by, 112. 

————,, on Origin of Spe- 

cies, 254. 


—_———_,, Stratigraphical Ta- 

bles, 257, 301. 

Kirkdale Cavern, J. A. Davies on, 408. 

Kjokkenmoddings, Human Remains in, 
221. 

Lake Habitations at Ambleon, 318. 

— at Muncheberg, 431. 

at Frauenfeld, 431. 

at Chambéry, 432. 

Land Flora, Devonian, N.E. America, 
Dr. Dawson on, 268. 

Leeches, Fossil Cocoons of, 72. 

Leicester, Human Skeleton from, J. 
Plant on, 260. 

, C. C. Blake on, 314. 

Lias Clay at Stow-on-the-Wold, Rev. 8. 
Lucas on, 127. 


- Likes and Dislikes, 361. 


Lithia-Mica and Lepidolite containing 
Rubidium and Cesium, 74. 

Liverpool Geological Society, 95, 186. 

Loéss of N. France and 8S. England, 
Prestwich on, 265, 

Loire Inférieure, M. Cailliand’s Map of, 
Review, 472. 

London Basin, Thinning of Eocene 
Beds in, W. Whitaker on, 266. 

Institution, 465. 

Loxomma Allmani, Prof. Huxley on, 267. 

Lucas, Rev. 8., on Lias Clay at Stow- 
on-tke-W old, 127. 


M. 


Mackie, 8. J., on the “ Dragon-tree ” of 
the Kentish Rag, 401. 

, on Fruits of Chalk, 1. 

, on Gravel at Ashford, 238. 

, on M. Gras’ Attack on the Eyi- 

dence of Flint Implements, 283. 

, on Greensand Turtles, 73. 

, Subdivisions of Chalk, 39. 

,on ‘“Two-foot ” Stratum im 

Chalk, 39. 

, on Bos frontosus, 441. 


INDEX. 


Macalister, J. H., on Northampton 
Sands, 67. 

Maccagnone Cave Mammalia, Dr. Fal- 
coner on, 260. 

Maidstone, Geology of, W. H. Bensted 
on, 294, 334, 378, 44/7. 

Malta, Bone-caves of, 4:70. 

Mammalia, Fossil, of S. America, 329. 

, Table of, 228; errata, 431. 

, from German Ocean, C. B. 
Rose on, 459. 

Mammalian Remains at Blackfriars 
Road, 237, 260. 

at Cullen, 431. 

— at Hylesford, 431. 

—_—_—_——- at’ Streatham, 431. 

—_——_——_— at Da Portel, 432. 

——_———- at: Chatteris, 431. 

——_——__——- at Bedford, 273. 

——————- in Crawford, U. S., 431. 

—— ———— at Saint Lothaire, 112. 

———_——_ at Dulwich, A. Bott on, 


eee ee 


———_—— at Maghery, 40. 

at Leysdown, 40. 

at Coggesham, 72. 

at Demblans, 239. 

——_——-—— in Leicester Museum,471. 

Leighton Buzzard, 470. 

——_—_—— Salisbury, 471. 

Man, Fossil, Illinois, 470. 

, Isle of, Geology of, T. Grindley 
on, fd. 

Manchester Field-Naturalists’ Society, 
237. 


—— 


os 


Geological Society, 67, 95, 
186, 237, 261, 311, 463. 

Meliha, Fossiliferous Cave of, Spratt’s 
Discoveries in, 353. 

Memoirs of Geological Survey: Geo- 
logy of Part of Oxfordshire and Berk- 
shire, by Messrs. Hall and Whitaker, 
119. 


———_ : Part 
of Berkshire and Hampshire, by 
Messrs. Bristow and Whitaker, 119. 

Metamorphic Rocks of Banffshire, Pro- 
fessor Harkness on, 268. 

Metamorphosis of Rocks inSouth Africa, 
Dr. R. N. Rubidge on, 47. 

of the Cape Town Rocks, 
Dr. Rubidge on, 366. 

Meteoric Iron from Copiapo, Chile, 
Wm. Bollaert on, 89. 

Microscopic Organisms in Paleozoic 
Rocks of New York, 239. 

Microscopical Examination of Some 
Bracklesham Beds, by T. Rupert 
Jones, 59. 


479 


Mineral Agents, Duties of, 111. 

——- Veins, Age of, C. Moore on, 420. 

Misopithecus of Attica, 471. 

Mitchell, Rev. H., on Pteraspis, 404. 

Moffat, Geology of, 470. 

Monkey, the Kyson, 424. 

, Fossil, in the Miocene, 427. 

Monkeys, Fossil, C. C. Blake on, 81. 

—, Recantation respect- 
ing, C. C. Blake, 431. 

‘Monographie de Gastéropodes, ete., 
de la Craie du Limbourg,’ by M. J. 
Binkhorst, 79. 

Monographs of the Geological Survey, 
305. 

‘Monographie des Cephalopodes,’ etc., 
by M. Binkhorst, 240. 

Montbéliard, Geology of, by Dr. Conte- 
jean, 397. 

Moore, C., on Paleontology of Mineral 
Veins, 4:20. 

Morton, G. H., Glacial Markings at 
Liverpool, 95, 271. 

, on Storeton Quarries, 


186. 
“Moselle, Geology of,” 474. 
Murchison, Sir R. I., on Dyas, 4. 
Muskham Skull, Letter on, 341. 
Myoxus Melitensis, 311. 


N. 


Nicol, Professor, on 8S. Grampians, 310. 

Nodular Bodies in the Crag, 112. 

Northampton Sands, Letter on, by Dr. 
Wright, 38. 

—_—_——__—, J. H.. Macalister on, 


66. 

Norwich Wells, Rey. J. Crompton on, 
460. 

Notes and Queries, 39, 72, 109, 149, 
192, 239, 271, 312, 353, 396, 426. 
460, 474. 


O. 


Old Red Sandstone of Fifeshire, J. 
Powrie on, 310. 


, South 
Perthshire, Professor Harkness on, 
266. 

Origin of Species, Professor W. King 
on, 254. 


, Microlestes on, 303. 

Owen, Professor, on Aye-aye in rela- 
tion to Origin of Species, 150. 

, Reptilia of 8. Joggins 

Coal Measures, 184. 


480 
le 


Paleontology of Mineral Veins, C. Moore 
on, 420. 

Past Life in South America, C. Carter 
Blake on, 323. 

Pebbles in Coal Measures, 312. 

Peltocaris, Salter on, 269. 

Pengelly, W., on Cave Deposits, 695. 

,on Devonian Fossils, 10. 

, Correlation of Devonian 
Slates with "Scottish Old Red Sand- 
stone, 456. 

Permian Beds of S. Lancashire, Binney 
on, 67. 

Petroleum in Granite, J. Yates on, 95. 

Pholidogaster pisciformis, Prof. Huxley 
on, 267. 

‘ Physico-Prophetical Essays,’ 
W. Lister, F.G.S., 200. 

‘ Placodus gigas and P. Adriani,’ 474. 

Plagiaulax, Disputed Affinities of, Dr. 
Falconer on, 270. 

Plant-beds of Central Asia, Rev. S. 
Hislop on, 72. 

Plants from ‘Hempstead Beds, Dr. Heer 
on, 270. 

——-, W. Pengelly on, 270. 

—, Fossil, from Lower Coal Measures, 

Lancashire, E. W. Binney on, 7. 

—-, Northern, Distribution of, Pro- 
fessor Oliver on, 262. 

Plesiosaurus in Chile, C. C. Blake on, 
110. 

Poligny, Meeting of Geologists at, 238. 

Powrie, J., on Old Red Sandstone of 
Fifeshire, 310. 

Preservation of Fossil Shells, Difference 
in State of, H. C. Sorby on, 423. 

Prestwich, J., on Accumulation of Drift 
Deposits, 189. 

—,on Loéss of North of France 
and South of England, 265. 

‘Prize Essay of the Academy of Sci- 
ences for 1856,’ by Professor Bronn, 
154. 

Proceedings of Geological Societies, 37, 
67, 91, 141, 183, 237, 262, 309, 351. 

Pteraspis, Rev. Hugh Mitchell on, 
404. 

-—, E. R. Lankester on, 451. 

Puy-de-Dome, Map of, 238. 

Pyrites, Nodule of, in Lake- peers at 
Robenhausen, 192. 


—— 


by Rey. 


Quarnero, Gulf of, Dr. Lorenz, 75. 


INDEX. 


R. 

Ramsay, Professor, Glacial Origin of 
Swiss Lakes, 144. 

Reculver, A Visit to, by Dr. G. D. Gibb, 
330. 

Red Sandstone of Dunmanway, 407. 

Reptilia (Ganocephala), from Coal Mea- 
sures of 8. Joggins, Professor Owen 
on, 184. 

Reviews, 76, 114, 151, 200, 240, 274, 
318, 354, 397, 434, 472. 

‘Revue de Géologie’ for 1860, by De- 
lesse and Laugel, 280. 

Richmond Institution, 185.: 

River-valleys of S. Ireland, Mode of 
Formation, by Professor Jukes, On, 
309. 

Rocky Mountains, Elevation of, Dr. 
Hayden on, 273. 

Royal Institution, 262, 263. 

Royal Society, 189, 265. 

Rubidge, Dr., on Metamorphosis of S. 
African Rocks, 47, 366. 


8. 


Safety Lamps, etc., 95, 312. - 

Salter, J. W., on Various Fossil Crus- 
tacea, 269. 

Sandstones of the Valley of the Eden, 
etc., Prof. Harkness on, 183. 

Saurian Remains in Lower Lias, G. 
E. Roberts on, 150. 

in the Jura, M. Che- 


pard on, 111. 

Sauroid Remains from Coal Formation 
of South Joggins, 110. 

Separation of Isle of Wight, 193, 432, 
452. 

Sharks’ Tooth from Panama, 316. 


_ Sicilian Bone-Caves, C.C. Blake on, 3038. 


Silurian Lower Fossils, new described 
by Mr. Billings, 111. 


—— at Builth, 40. 

—__——___—___—___—— in Meath, 469. 

Siphonia Benstedu, 335. 

Skiddaw Slate Veins, Professor Harkness 
on, 420. 

Sligo, Geology of, A. B. Wynne on, 
422. 

Sorby, H. C., on Difference in Preserva- 
tion of Fossil Shells, 423. 

Species, Origin of, Professor Owen on 
Aye-aye, in Relation to, 150. 

Spontaneous Generation, 121. 

Stratigraphical Tables, 257, 301. 

Storeton Quarries, G. H. Morton on, 
186. 


| Switzerland, Human Remains in, 220. 


INDEX. 


aE 


Tasmania, Mineral Resources of, 306. 

Taylor, J.,. Footprints in Cambrian 
Rocks of Isle of Man, 321. 

‘The Tenby Bone Caves,’ 115. 

‘Theology of Geology,’ by W. Gillespie, 
158. 

Todmorden, Excursion to, E. W. Bin- 
ney on, 311. 

Torbane Mineral Field, A. Taylor on, 43. 

Trails, Tracks, and Surface Markings, 
T. Rupert Jones on, 128, 454. 

Treflach Quarry, Fossils from, 316. 

Trent, Human Remains from the Valley 
of the, Professor Huxley on, 201. 

, C. Carter Blake on, 215. 

Trinidad, Pitch Lakes, B. Lechmere 
Guppy on, 258. 

Turtle Remains in Upper Greensand of | 
Bee Note on by 8. J. Mackie, 

3. 


AV 


Vegetable Organisms, Permanence of, 
Professor Unger on, 109. 
,» Remains at Bournemouth, 
427. 
Ventilation of Mines, J. Goodwin on, 


95, 96. 
Ventriculites, What are the,S8.J.Mackie, 
161. 
Vesuvius, Eruption of, M. P. de Tchiha- 
 teheff on, 93. 
Volcanic Phenomena, Torre del Greco, 
Signor Palmieri on, 92. 
‘Volcanos and their Phenomena,’ by 
G. P. Serope, reviewed, 360. 
——_——,, Mr. Brayley’s Lectures on, 
465. 


VOL. V. 


481 


W. 


Wallabies’ Holes, Peculiar Substance 
from, River Murray, 8. Australia, W. 
Murray on, 63. 

Analysis of, 141. 

Weald Clay at Maidstone, 381. 

Whales of the Antwerp Crag, M. Van 
Beneden on, 96. 

Whitaker, W., on Eocene Beds of 
London Basin, 266. 

Wollaston Medal and Fund, 142. 

Wood, Edward, on Coal, Coalpits, and 
Pitmen, 185 

Woodward, S. P., on Barrettia, 372. 

, ou Cyphosoma Keoe- 


from, 


, Substance 


nigi, 41. 
Wookey Hole, Hyzna Den at, W. B. 
Dawkins on, 92. 
Works of Dr. Julius Schvarez, 114. 
Wright, Dr. T., on Northampton Sands, 
39 


Wyatt, J., on Disputed Beads in the 
Drift, 233. 

Wynne, A. B., on Drift Fossils in Ire- 
land, 428. 

———, on Geology of Sligo, 422. 


Ne 


‘Year-book of Facts in Science and Art,’ 
by J. Timbs, 119. 


Z. 


Zanzibar, Geology of, R. Thornton on, 
oll. 

Zollverein, Coals, and Brown Coal of the, 
391. 

‘Zoology of Ancient Europe,’ by A. 
Newton, reviewed, 318. 


482 


LIST OF PLATES. 


To face Page 


. Fossil Fruit from Chalk of Rochester . . - . + « ~ » Witle-Page 
. Chalk Cliffs under Dover Castle, Kent . .. . era i ct) 
. Cyphosoma Keenigi, from Upper Chalk of Geena Death oan Ae 


HV. Molar Tooth of Hlephas Texianus (1. s.)i* < ole) ee ee 
Vi. daw ot Dryopithecus Hontant . 25). 6 os) 6 eee ee 
VI. Jaw of Pliopithecusantiquus . . . = 1 a04 
VII. Sandstone Slab with tracks and trails, | Ae Upper Hastings Baiide 135 
VIII. The “ Cheese Grotto” of the Hifel . . . . sped 
IX. Recent Sponge, illustrative of the Cephalites of Ne Challe witdgeeeeanell Gs 

- X. Section of Flint with Galerite, illustrative of the ee Origin of 
Ma ae oa oe iii: sone 
XI. Human Skull, from Mnciiinae Valley of the Trot Sey case ee 
' XII. Decomposing Bed of Basalt, Giant’s Causeway, Antrim . . . . 239 


- XIE Perehed Boulder, Dunmanway, Cou€ork = 2 2 Sept eee 


AV. 


PSV: 


i XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 
EXeTNXG: 


XX. 
XXI. 


XXII. 
XXIII. 


AXILYV. 


The “ Ship-rock,” Dunmanway, Co. Cork .~. + 535 9S = "a eiza0 
Bos frontosus from Bawdsey Bog, Suffolk. . . . ... . . 441 
Iguanodon Quarry (Kentish Rag), Maidstone, Kent . . . . . 299 
Siphonia Benstedii (Lower Greensand). . . ... .. - - 800 


Various Portions of Siphonia Benstedit. “5. een ee 
Fossil Fruits and Sponge from Kentish Rag . . . . . .. » 337 
Vertical Section of Barrettia monilifera. .~.9- 9: = 2) = = ede 


Horizontal Section of Barrettia monilifera and Upper and Lower 
Valve of Hippurite from Angouleme=; .. 2) 3s sae Sena 
Dracena Benstedii, from Lower Greensand . .. . 401 
Human Skulls from Kellet and Leicester, and Frontal i of skull 
from Heathery Burn Cave .. . . ~ y > aed 


Scottish Terebratula described by T. Davilison: Boe 5 F. R co « 2 443 


483 


LIST OF WOODCUTS. 


PAGE 

Fossil Fruit from Chalk. .). Ht 
Ground Plan of Heathery Burn 

Cave ; 35 
Transverse Section of Heather 9 

Burn Cave . 59) 
Cross Section of Heathery Burn 

Cave . 36 
Section at Wolve Krool, ‘South 

Africa... 48 


Section of Metamorphosed Rocks. 50 
Accessory Twiststo MetallicSaddles 52 
Three Sections showing Disposition 
of Slate Rocks and Porphyry, 
South Africa. . . 54 
Section across Murray River Valley 63 
View of Wallabies’ Holes, Murray 


lea ty Seles 64 
Humerus of Dr yopithceus Fontani 81 
The Peak Cavern . . 86 
Ideal Section of Rents in Derby- 

shire Limestone. . 88 
Meteorite from Copiapo . vaimoaue 89 
Ideal Primary Section of a Forma- 

PLOW = ial. 6 93 


Distribution of Calcareous and Se- 
dimentary Strata of the Great 
Oolite, Oxfordshire . . aes 

Veined Boulder. . . ere a kOO 

Nodular Body from Crag me yotet pale, 

Galleries in Dried Clay of Water 
Insects, Le) 

Dried Clay showing Trails and Im- 
prints of Bird’s Feet . . . 180 

Four Specimens of Trails from 
American Rocks. . . . 182, 133 

Blown Footprints of Birds in Sand 134 

Original Footprints of the Birds . 1385 

Vertical Holes in Hastings Sand . 136 

Ova of Boat-Flies in Dried Mud . 137 

Illustration of Formation of Ba- 
Raimemcolumms 1°. . « « « 14d 

Crystal of Chlorite. ... Ener lto) 0) 

Portion of Flint Nodule attached 


toa Ventriculite . 161 
Cross Bracing of Went ieulite 

pes: . «| poh OG Aare gal Uf 52 

-_ Ventriculite eS inacrure, tee . 163 
Measured Ground-Plan of Heeathery 

Burn Cave . . . 168 


PA 
Longitudinal Section of Part of 


Heathery Burn Cave . ae 

Transverse Section across Part of 
Heathery Burn Cave . . 

The “ Communion Table” in Hea- 
thery Burn Cave . 

Section of Gravels in Valley. of the 
Seine . 

Portion of Skull from Heathery 
Burn Cave . 

Front view of Neanderthal Skull . 

Side view of Neanderthal Skull 

Side view of Engis Skull 

Side view of Plau Skull . . 

Side view of Mewslade Skull 

Side view of Sennen Skull . . . 

Human Skull from Montrose (2 
views) . 

Human Skull from Nether Urquhart 
(2 views). 

Fragment of Human Skull from 
Plymouth . 

Side View of Bast Ham Sli 

Section of the “‘ Cone de Dejection 
torrentielle de la Tiniére”’ 

Skull of Mississippi mound- builder 

Coscinopora, or “‘ Beads,” from Gra- 
vel Drift of Bedford : 

Microscopic Organisms from Pale- 
ozoic Rocks of New York : 

Perched Boulder, “ yan uae 
Kenmare 

Glacial Strize, Dummanway, co. 
Cork ale 

Section showing Loess and “High- 
and Low-level Gravels . : 

Lignite-beds containing ror acees 
Whiteinch 

Section of Brick-earth and Sand i in 
Ragstone-beds at Maidstone . 

Section from Blue Bell Hill to 
Crowborough . : 

Femur of Tri ionyx from ) Halling | 
Chalk Pit . : 

Spring-head in Lower Chalk 

False Str atification in Lower Green- 
sand, Maidstone . 

Transverse section of Tronstone 
Pipes in Sandling Wood . 


170 


484 LIST OF WOODCUTS. 
PAGE PAGE 
Drift Clay filling Fissures in Rag- Restored Specimen of Pteraspis 

stone-beds in Maidstone . . . 301 Heads. >. 405 
Supposed Footprint from Dalby, Supposed pidomnel Plate oF pte: 

Isle of Man . . ; . 321 raspis . . 406 
View of Reculver, 1848 tanner Soe SeECHOn- OF Chalk wath Flint Vena 407 
Small Flint Implement from Herne Footprints in Carboniferous Rocks 432 

Baya: . 333 | Vertical Cross Section of ditto . . 432 
Aleyonium from Kentish Rag . . 3384 | Longitudinal Section of ditto . 432 
Large pointed Flint Implement . 344 | Protrusion of Ragstone into Drift . 44/7 
Plan of Country around St. Francis Ragstone and Drift at Maidstone . 449 

Bay, South Africa... . . . 367 | Anticlinal at Preston . . . 450 
Section at Pickel Vontem . . . 371 | Section at Preston. . . 450 
Section through Chatty. . . . 3871 | Pteraspides from Cradley . 451 
Section at Klein Poorden Poort . 372 | Restoration of Pteraspis . . 452 
Tertiary and Secondary Strata, Ja- Drift Beds at Manchester . 464 

maica . . . . 8/8 | Inosculation of Sand and Gravel . 465 


Restored Figure ‘of Pteraspis - . 404 


END OF VOL. V. 


JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, PRINTER, 
LITTLE QUERN SUREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 


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FOR THE USE OF BEGINNERS AND AMATEURS. 
By GEORGE BENTHAM, Esq, 


PRESIDENT OF THE LINNZAN SOCIETY. 


From the ‘ Atheneum” 

*The countrymen of John Ray and Robert 
Brown can boast of hundreds who, if they have not 
been creators of the science of Botany as those two 
can claim to be, have largely contributed to its pre- 
sent position. Amongst these Mr. George Bentham 
holds no second place. He is also well knewn to 
thinkers for his work on Logic. It is, therefore, 
with pleasure that we receive from his hands a 
book intended to assist in the work of teaching bo- 
tany to the young, and those who have no teachers. 
On the subject of the plants of Great Britain, we 
have works from the magnificent ‘ English Flora’ 
of Smith and Sowerby, down to the curt and ac- 


-eurate ‘Manual’ of Babington. But for popular 


use they may be all objected to, either on the 
ground of their expense or their technical charac- 
ter. Mr. Bentham’s aim has been to produce a 
cheap, untechnical volume, containing descriptions 
of all British plants, with an easy method of finding 
cut their names. In this, we think, he has suc- 
ceeded.” 


Professor Asa Gray. 

**One of the best of systematic botanists—of 
the soundest judgment and the largest experience, 
both in European and exotic botany—has deemed 


_ it no unfit employment of a portion of his valuable 


time to prepare a volume by which beginners, 
having no previous acquaintance with the science, 
may learn to know, most advantageously and 
readily, the wild flowers and plants of his native 
land. The result is a genuine popular Flera, and 
a clear proof that the plants of a limited country 
may be deseribed, by one» who understands them 
thoroughly, in comparatively simple language, 
without any sacrifice of scientific accuracy or of 
scientific interest. No really good work of this 
kind was ever made by a compiler; and no one 
who has not essayed the task, can comprehend how 
thoroughly faithful writing for beginners brings 
one’s knowledge to the proof. 

*‘The short sections upon classification and the 
examination and determination of plants, are full 
of practical wisdom,’ 


PRESENTATION OF A ROYAL MEDAL TO MR. BENTHAM. 


The following is an Extract from the Address of the President at the last Anniversary 
of the Royal Society. 


‘¢The remarkable accuracy which distinguishes all Mr. Bentham’s scientific researches, the logical pre- 
cision that characterizes his writings, and the sound generalizations which his systematic works exhibit 
may be in a great measure traced to the influence of his uncle, the late celebrated legal theorist, Jeremy 
Bentham, who directed much of his early studies, and under whose auspices he published one of his 
earliest works, ‘ Outlines of a New System of Logic. His mind was further imbued in youth with a love 
of Natural History, and especially Botany, and this taste was cultivated and nourished by a study of the 
works of the elder De Candolle. Fortunately for the cause of Botany in England, Mr. Bentham has de- 
voted himself almost exclusively to that science; and to his excellent powers of observation, close reason- 
ing, concise writing, and indefatigable perseverance our country owes the distinction of ranking amongst 
its naturalists one so pre-eminent for his valuable labours in systematic botany. Amongst Mr. Bentham’s 
numerous writings, those hold the first rank which are devoted to the three great Natural Orders, Legu- 
minose, Labiate, and Scrophulariacee. These Orders demanded a vast amount of analytic study, for they 
are amongst the largest and most widely-distributed of the vegetable kingdom, and had been thrown into 
great confusion by earlier writers. They have been the subject of many treatises by Mr. Bentham, and 
especially of two extensive works, the contents of which have lately been embodied in the ‘Systema 
Vegetabilium’ of the De Candolles. On their first appearance these works secured for their author a Euro- 
pean reputation, and will always rank high as models of skill and classification. It would occupy too much 
time to specify the very numerous monographs and papers which Mr. Bentham has communicated to 
various scientific societies and periodicals in this country and on the Continent, and especially to the Linnean 
Transactions and Journal, That ‘On the Principles of Generic Nomenclature’ may be noted as an example 
of his power of treating an apparently simple, but really abstract and difficult subject in a manner at once 
philosophical and practical. Mr. Bentham’s most recent work, that on British Plants, is the first on the 
indigenous Flora of owr Islands in which every species has been carefully analyzed and described from spe- 
cimens procured from all parts of the globe; tt is distinguished for its scientific accuracy, advanced general 
views, and extreme simplicity—a combination of qualities which can result only from an extensive series of 
exact observations, judiciously arranged and logically expressed, The President then addressed Mr. Bentham 
as follows :—The early volumes of the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ contain numerous papers relating to 
botany and the other sciences which are usually comprehended under the general designation of Natural 
History. As these sciences, but especially botany, became more and more extended, it was thought desi- 
rable that another Institution should be called into existence, which might share with the Royal Society 
the privilege of promoting the cultivation of them, and of communicating to the world from time to time 
the progress which has been made in this department of knowledge ; and such was the origin of the Linnean 
Society in the year 1788. The Royal Society, however, does not on that account feel the less interested in 
this class of scientific investigations. It is accordingly with great satisfaction that the Council have awarded 
to you one of the Royak Medals, and that in the name of the Society I now place it in your hands, in testi- 
mony of their high appreciation of your researches, and of the respect which they have for you as a 
fellow-labourer in the field of science.’’— Proceedings of the Royal Society. 


| LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


CONTENTS. i 
age 
1 


Some Fossil Fruits from the Chalk. (With a Plate.) By the EDITOR . 3 d 
On the Inapplicability of the New Term “Dyas” to the “ Permian” Group of 
Rocks, as proposed by Dr. Geinitz. Communicated by Sir RopERick ImPry 


Murcaison, F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., ete... . - 4, 
The Geological and Chronological Distribution of the Devonian Fossils of Devon and 

Cornwall. By W. Penceiiy, F.G.S. . = ° . : aed Lh) 
On some Points in the Structure of the Skull of Fossil Musk-deer (Cainotherium). 

By Cuaries CaRTER BuakE, Esq. : : . : : : : - 32 


On the Discovery of Human and Animal Bones in Heathery Burn Cave, near 


Stanhope. By Joun Exuiort, Esq. . 34 
Proceedings of Geological Societies :— 
Geological Society of London 4 : : : : Seer sas . 37 
Correspondence :— | 
Northampton Sands... (co tfc ses +) ye 0 os cae es 
- Notes and Queries :— 
Subdivision of the Chalk Formation. (With a Plate.) 5 : j : ocaeo 
Lower Silurian Fossils at Builth . ; . 5 : ; : : : . 40 
Mammalian Remains . d 2 : ; 2 : - - a : . 40 


A SUPPLEMENT, 


WITH SIX PLATES, INDEX, ETC., TO COMPLETE VOL. IV., 
Will be ready on the 14th instant. 


\ 


THE THIRD EDITION, 


Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 6s., 


ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY, 


DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL. 


By DAVID PAGE, F.GS., 


Author of ‘Introductory Text-Book of Geology,’ ‘ Past and Present Life of the Globe,’ etc. 
WILLIAM BLAcKWoop anD Sons, Edinburgh and London. 


Of whom may be had, by the same Author, 


INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY. 1s. 6d. 
HANDBOOK OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS AND GEOLOGY. 6s. 
THE PAST AND PRESENT LIFE OF THE GLOBE. 6s. 


VOL. V. No. 50.] FEBRUARY, 1862. [Pricn ls. 6d. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


EDITED BY S&S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., FS.A. 


“ Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy .’—Herschel : 
_ Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. B, TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON. 


Just completed, in Two Volumes, Sixty-two coloured Plates, £2. 16s. 


ELEMENTS OF CONCHOLOGY: 


AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 


NATURAL HISTORY OF SHELLS, 


AND OF THE ANIMALS WHICH FORM THEM. 


By LOVELL REEVE, F.LS., F-G:8; 


CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF WURTEMBERG, AND OF THE 
LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW YORE. 


Shells are too much collected as mere articles of fancy cr connoisseurship, | 
fascinating the amateur by their varieties of form and colour, without exciting an 
interest in the life. The conchologist should look upon his Shells, in the absence 

of the soft parts of the animal, as the bones of a tribe of animals whose history 
may to a great extent be ascertained by their structure and external characters ; 
and it adds surely to the interest of collecting if when looking at a drawer of 
Shells the observer is able to gather up all that is known of the life of the Speci- 
mens, and so picture to his imagination how they exist in their native haunts. 

The ‘EiemeEnts or ConcHotocy’ embodies a systematic history of the Mol- 
lusca in their Natural Order, that is to say, an account of the living animal and 
of its shell, of their Structure, Geographical Distribution, Habits, Characters, 
Affinities, Arrangement, and Enumeration of Species. There are Forty-six Plates 
of Shells, illustrative of the Genera, and Sixteen Plates of Shells with the living 
Animals, all beautifully coloured. 


“Mr. Lovell Reeve has provided entertainment for those who collect shells and also for 
those who study the manners and customs of shell-fish. In the ‘ Elements of Conchology,’ 
which has been coming out in numbers for some time, and is now completed, he has given 
us figures and descriptions of the principal genera of shells, with lists of all the species ; 
and has besides devoted considerable space to the structure and habits of molluscous‘ 
animals, a portion of the plates being reserved for their representation. The arrangement 
professes to be that of Lamarck, but it is in reality a considerable improvement upon 
that famous system, which is the foundation of all our modern treatises. Some of our ac- 
quaintances, who pride themselves on being ‘advanced’ conchologists, will look upon this 
acknowledgment of Lamarck as a very conservative or retrograde proceeding ; but when 
we consider what strange vagaries the ‘advanced conchologists’ have performed, and how 
utterly they differ amongst themselves (and sometimes from their former selves of a short 
while ago), both as to arrangement and names—we cannot help congratulating Mr. Reeve 
on the reticence which has saved him and his subscribers from following any Will-o’-the- 
Wisp into a conchological slough of despond.”— Critic. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


EKOLOGY.—KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.—PROFESSOR 


TENNANT, F.G.S., commenced a course of Lectures on Geology, on Friday morning, 
January 24, at Nine o’clock. They will be continued on each succeeding Wednesday and 
Friday at the same hour. Fee £2. 12s. 6d. 

R. W, JELF, D.D., Principat. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 
i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 O 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays EINE (ann 5 5 O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with cight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet withtwelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 

MINERALS which are cither the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Caleareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zine, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. 

PALAMOZIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, etc. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select, 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 

It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 O 
The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4, ins. sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” 
by the Rev. Wattrr Mitcnetn, M.A., and Prorressor Tennant, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WatErnHovsre Hawkins’s GEo- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct AnrimAaLs—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5. 5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawxrns, F.L.S., etc,, adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s ResTORATION oF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S8. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, ete., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
eeerment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 
Page 


Note on Kénig’s Sea Urchin. (With a Plate.) By 8S. P. Woopwazp, F.GS8. + 4a 
Sketch of the Geology of the Torbane Mineral Field. By ANDREW Taytor, F.R.PS. 43 


Notes on the Metamorphosis of Rocks in South Africa. By Dr. R. N. Rupmpez . 47 
_ On a Fossil Elephant from Texas. (With a Plate.) By C. CarntER BLAKE . . 57 
On the Microscopical Examination of some Bracklesham Beds. By T. Rupzrt 
Jones, F.G.S. . : j ; : 5 5 : : : : : . 58 
On the Occurrence of a Peculiar Substance in the Limestone of South Australia. 
By W. Murray, C.E. . ; : : : : : : : : . 63 
Correspondence :— 
W. Penceity, F.G.S. On Accumulation of Cave Deposits : : : . 65 
J. H. Macatister. On Northampton Sands . see : é : . 66 
Proceedings of Geological Societies . : : : ; sa Duds : . 67 
Notes and Queries :— 
Fossil Cocoons of Leeches : : : : ; : : AE: 
Human Remains in Cornwail : - E : : : : ; ‘ 3) GS 
The Coal Trade . : : : : : : : ; 2 : foals 
Turtle Remains in Upper Greensand . : : gi Pas : : : 1 V4 
Fossil Feather. ; : : ; : 3 : : : : 5 . 74 
Foreign Correspondence . ; ‘ : 5 . : : 5 3 : io 
Reviews :— 
The Alps. By H. Berlepsch ; : : ; 3 : : 2 36 
Monographie des Gastéropodes de la Craie supérieure. By M. Binkhorst . a, 


THE SUPPLEMENT 
TO COMPLETE VOL. IV. IS NOW READY, | 
CONTAINING INDEX, PREFACE, ETC, AND SIX PLATES. 


25, GoLDEN SquaRE, W. 


CORRESPONDENTS. 

The Rey. Urnpan Smiru, Stony Middleton ; RoBERT Mortimer, Esq., Fimber, 
Yorkshire; J. Musnen, Esq., Birmingham; C. C. Buaxe, Esq., Brunswick Square ; 
W. WAKEFIELD, Esq., Waltham; Jonn Exziort, Esq., Stanhope; W. WHITAKER, 
Esq., Jermyn Street ; C. W. Crocker, Esq., Chichester; J. Tatz, Esq., Alnwick. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Défense des Colonies. I. Groupe Probatoire, comprenant La Colonie Haidinger, 
La Colonie Krejgi et La Coulée Krejci. By BarratpE. Prague, 25th Noyv., 1861.— 
Notice des Cartes Géologique et Hydrologique de la Ville de Paris. Par M. DELEssz. 
Paris, 1861.—Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science. No. V. January, 1862. 


VOD: V; No, 51.] MARCH, 1862. (Price ls. 6d. 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
| 
| AN ILLUSTRATED 

| POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

; : 

| GEHOLOG ¥. 


*\ 
3S, 
/ 
EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. 
“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.” — Herschel : 


Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 
LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. E. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON. 


This day is Published, 
I.—A new Edition, being the Frrru, 
Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 1s. 9d., cloth, 


INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY. 
By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. 


II.—A New Edition, being the Turrp, 
Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 6s., 


ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY, 
DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL. 
By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. 


Wi1i4amM Biackwoop anp Sons, Edinburgh and London. 


Just completed, in Two Volumes, Sixty-two coloured Plates, £2. 16s. 
ELEMENTS OF CONCHOLOGY: 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SHELLS, 


AND OF THE ANIMALS WHICH FORM THEM. 


By LOVELL REEVE, Fis. hes 


CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF WURTEMBERG, AND OF THE 
LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


MICROSCOPES. 


HIGHLEY’S, QUEKETT’S, BEALE'S. 


fo Sune. 
Quekett’s Pocket Dissecting Microscope, with three Lenses, etc., folding into 
a space of 53 inches square by 13 inch thick, as improved by Mr. Highley. 210 9 
Prof. Beale’s, Clinical Pocket’ Microscope... 2) 6 ys,7< 6h ee oO 
Prof. Beale’s Clinical Cabinet Reagents, and Apparatus for Testing Urine, etc., 
with recent Improvements by Mr. Highley . 2 5 0 


Highley’s Hospital Student’s Microscope, with Magnetic Stage, Inclinable 
Body, Plain and Concave Mirror, Side Condenser, Stage and Brass Forceps, 
ete., 1-inch and 1}-inch Object-glass, in Case (the price varying according to 
the quality and angular aperture of the Object-glasses) £7.10s.6d.,£10.,and 12 0 0 

Highley’s Large Microscope, on Brooke’s Tripod Stand, Rackwork Adjust- 
ments, “‘ Centering” Substage, Double Mirror, etc., all of the best con- 

Btruchion << 3. 6 ate eo Se ee OO 

Prof. Beale’s Demonstrating Microscope (for Lecturers), with Lamp, etc. of 
improved construction... soo. 5. “eae hia eee ae eee en me 

flighley’s Reagent Cabinet, containing twelve improved Capped Dropping 
Bottles (for Microscopical Testing) in Ebonite Rack . . Cita 9 

Highley’s Improved Achromatized Gas Microscope Lamp, with Mounting 
Bath, Plate, ete. See er ee ere ie eh ee Se Sa RTO OO 

=" For Dissecting, Injecting, Mounting Apparatus, Cements, Preservative Fluids, 

Spectrum Analysis Apparatus, Minerals, Rocks, Fossils, ete., see Descriptive Illustrated 

Catalogue (post free for two postage stamps) of ScrenTrFIc EpucaTIoNaL COLLECTIONS, 

as selected and arranged by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, Private Teacher of Elementary 


O1G520 


Science. 


70, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON, W. 


Re EIR SD ES yA apes 


EOLOGY.—KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.—PROFESSOR 


TENNANT, F.G.S., commenced a course of Lectures on Geology, on Friday morning, 
January 24, at Nine o’clock. They will be continued on each succeeding Wednesday and 
Friday at the same hour. Fee £2. 12s. 6d. 

R. W. JELF, D.D., PRINCIPAL. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 O 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays fagie te BB Bae 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers 5 aga tee A AE OT 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet withtwelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 

MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them:—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. 

PALMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Ciay, Crag, etc. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mk. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 


It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 


Sold in Cases, bound and letterea to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


; Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 O Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
BS The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” 
by the Rey. WALTER MitTcHELtL, M.A., and ProrEessor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WaTERHOUsE Hawxkins’s GEo- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawrrys, F.L.S., etc., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s ReEsTORATION oF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles. 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Mode!s, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steet Hescsen Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, etc.. can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 


Fossil Monkeys. (With two Plates.) By C. Canter BuaxE, Esq. 
Geology of Castleton, Derbyshire. By Joun Tayrtor, Hsq., F.G.S. | = aie Biel) 
Notes on a New Mass of Meteoric Iron from the Cordillera of Copiapo, Chile. By 


Page 
«ee 


Wm. BoruaERt, F.R.G.S. 89 
Proceedings of Geological Societies . ‘ : - : : : d . ical 
Foreign Intelligence : . ; . : : : : . . : eas 
Notes and Queries ;— 

Travelled Boulders. : 5 : 2 5 : 5 : : : . 108 
Permanency of Vegetable Organisms . : eae ; : ; . 109 
Earthquake Phenomena~ . : ; : : : . : : : . 109 
Harthquake Shocks ~ : : : : : . ; : cee td) 
Plesiosaurus in Chile . ; : : : ; ; é i } : . 110 
Sauroid Remains ; : : ; : ; 2 3 : 5 : 7-140 
New Canadian Lower Silurian Fossils . : : 3 : : é A eb 
Carboniferous Beds of Dinant . : : : 5 ica ae 5 4 eal 
Duties of Mineral Agents. : : : : : : 5 : : pet ILL 
Saurian Remains in the Jura vigoats : 3 : : : : ; led 
Mammalian Remains . : : : : s : : : A : Syl 
Nodular Bodies from the Crag. ; : ; : i : j : tele 
Geology Briefly Explained .. : ‘ . : : : ; : : . 112 
Reviews :— 
Works of Julius Schvarez, Ph.D. : : ; ; : : : ‘ . 114 
On the Tenby Bone Caves. By a Pembrokeshire Rector  . : : : eebEo 
The Intellectual Observer. : : : : : : : : : ee ities) 
“The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By John Timbs, F.S8.A. ; petits) 


Memoirs of the Geological Survey: Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Hampshire . 119 


GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION.—Professor Tennant will accom- 
pany his Class, on Wednesday, March 5th, to Maidstone, to examine the 
Greensand, Gault, ahd Chalk of the district. Any old student, or 
member of the Geologists’ Association, desirous of joining the party, 
Professor Tennant will be glad to see them. He hopes to have the 
assistance of Rev. T. Witrsairre and Mr. Brenstep. ‘The train leaves 
London Bridge at 10.15 am. Fares, second class, 4s. for the double 
journey. : 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


J. Huriorr, Esq., Stanhope ; J. Musuen, Hsq., Birmingham; C. CarTER Buaxe, Esq., 
Brunswick Square ; 8. Grirrirus, Hsq., Redlands; W. H. BensTrep, Esq., Maidstone ; 
B. Buienxison, Esq., Portshead; General Twentow, Guildford; Rev. J. N. Smita, 
Gumfreston ; J. C. Capron, Esq., Guildford; James Puant, Esq., Leicester; GEORGE 
Rosins, Esq., Medford Castle; Joun Harris, Esq., Pontypool; Dr. Bevan, Beaufort. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Decade X. Classification of Devonian Fishes. 
By Professor Huxtry. 1861. 

Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Geology of Berkshireand Hampshire. By Messrs. 
H. W. Bristow, W. WHITAKER, and R. Erurripesr. 1862. 

Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Geology of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. By Messrs. 
EKpwarp Hatt, W. Wuitarer, and R. HraeripGe. 1861. 
- Recherches sur ’ Hau dans lIntérieur dela Terre. By M. Detussz. (From the Author.) 

avis. 1862. 

Silliman’s Journal. January, 1862. 

Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches in New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and 
Chile. By W. Bontarrr, F.R.G.S. London: Triibner. and Co. 1860. 

The Intellectual Observer. No. 1, February. London: Groombridge and Sons. 1862. 

The Year-Book of Facts. By Joun Trwps, F.S.A. London: Lockwood and Co., 
7, Stationers’ Hall Court. 1862. 

On the Tenby Bone Caves, and the Question of the Antiquity of the Human Race, as 
inferred from certain Flint Implements found in them. By a Pembrokeshire Rector. 
London: Kent and Co. ; 


VORLV. No. 52; | APRIL, 1862. [Prick ls. 6d. 


| THE GEOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.G.S., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”’—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LO Nn : 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
PARIS: J, ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO, 


PRINTED BY J. BE. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREBT, LONDON, 


NEW WORKS, 


TO BE PUBLISHED ON THE ist OF APRIL. 


‘ 


a 


SKETCHES IN INDIA. A Series of One Hundred Photographic 


Vignettes, illustrative of the Scenery and Antiquities of Golconda, of English Life in 
India, of Native Character, of Noblemen, etc., taken at Hyderabad and “Se cundera- 
bad, in the Madras Presidency, by Captain ALLAN N. SCOTT, Madras Artillery. 
Edited by C.R. WELD. Square 8vo. Price £3. 3s. 


2. 


ILLUSTRATIONS of the NUEVA QUINOLOGIA of PAVON. 
With Observations on the Barks described. By JOHN ELIOT HOWARD, F.L:S. 
Thirty folio Coloured Plates by W. Fircu and TuFFEN WEsT. Price £5. 5s. 


3. 


THE BRITISH FERNS. A New Series, beautifully ilustrated 
with Sixty-six Plates, with full Analyses of Bructiacsiion and Venation. By Sir 
W. J. HOOKER, F-.R.S., Director of the Royal Gardens of Kew. Price £2. 2s. 


4. 
GARDEN FERNS. A Selection of Sixty-four Ferns best adapted 


for Cultivation in the Garden, Hothouse, or Conservatory, illustrated with as many 
Plates, with full Analyses of Fructification and Venation. Price £2. 2s. 


5. 


PHYCOLOGIA AUSTRALICA. A History of Australian Seaweeds, 


with details of Fructification, etc. By Professor HARVEY, F.R.S. Vol. IV. 
Price £1. 10s. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


MICROSCOPES. 
HIGHLEY’S, QUEKETT’S, BEALE'S. 


aa Pocket Dissecting Microscope, with three Lenses, etc., folding into 
a space of 53 mches square by 13 inch thick, as improved by Mr. Hichley . 210 0 
Prof. Beale’s Clinical Pocket Microscope . . 5 
Prof. Beale’s Clinical Cabinet Reagents, and Apparatus for Testing Urine, ete., z 
with recent Improvements by “Mr. Highley . see 
Highley’s Hospital Student’s Microscope, with Magnetic Sta age, Inclinable 
Body, Plain and Concave Mirror, Side Condenser, Stage and Brass Forceps, 
ete., 1-inch and 13-inch Object- glass, i in Case (the price varying according to 
the quality and angular aperture of the Object-glasses) £7.10s.6d.,£10.,and 12 O © 
Highley’s Large Mierc oscope, on Brooke’s Tripod Stand, Rack swork Adjust- 
ments, “ Centering”? Substage, Double Mirror, etc., all of the best con- 


i) 
Or 
j=) 


struction . . aL OKO © 
Prof. Beale’s Demonstr: ating Microscope (for Lecturers), with Lam», ‘ete. of 

improved construction . . ee Ra 
Highley’s Reagent Cabinet, containing twelve improved Capped Dropping 

Bottles (for Microscopical Testing) in Ebonite Rack  . 016 0 
Highley’s Improved Achromatized Gas Microscope Lamp, with Mounting 

Bath, Plate, ete. . . 210 0 


ter For Dissecting, Injecting, Mounting Apparatus, Goments: Pee eiven Fluids, 
Spectrum Analysis Apparatus, Minerals, Rocks, Fossils, etc., see Descriptive Illustrated 
Catalogue (post free for two postage stamps) of Screntietc Epvcatronat COLLECTIONS, 
as selected and arranged by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, Private Teacher of Elementary 


Science. 


70, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON, W. 


RACTICAL GEOLOGY.—KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.— 
PROFESSOR TENNANT, F.G:S., will give a course of Lectures on Geology, haying 
especial reference to the application of the Science to Engineering, Mining, Architecture, and 
Agriculture. The Lectures will commence on Wednesday morning, April 30, at Nine o'clock. 
They will be continued on each succeeding Friday and Wednesday at the same hour. Fee 
£1. 11s. 6d. R. W. JELF, D.D., Principat. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 
i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays se ak as aly 5 5 0 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet withtwelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of Bane a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all paits of the 
world, 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 

MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Sifver, Gold, Platina, ete. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. 

PALOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, etc. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 

Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 

It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 
To illustrate the section on Crystaliography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” 
by the Rev. WaLTreR Mitcyent, M.A., and Proressor TENNANT, F.R.G:S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WarErnovusE Hawkins’s GE 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANiIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus_(two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawerns, F.L.S., etc., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 1Us. 

Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s Restoration or Extrncr Animas. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S._ Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc.. can be supplied to the 

Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Seal to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralog 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
Spontaneous Generation . 5 : ; : 3 ; ; . 121 
Further Notes on the Genus Cainotherium. By CHARLES CARTER BuaKkE, Esq. . 124 
Section of the Lias Clay in a Railway-Cutting near Stow-on-the-Wold. By the 


Rev. 8S. Lucas, F.G:S. : ; : : ; : Z : 5 £27 
Trails, Tracks, and Surface-Markings. By 'T. Ruprrr Jones, Esq., F.G.8. (With 
a Plate.) . 4 : : : ; : ; : : : : . 128 
The Cheese-Grotto of Bertrich-Baden, in the Hifel. (Witha Plate.) .. ; . 189 
Correspondence. : ; : 4 ; ; ; : : : . 141 
Proceedings of Geological Societies . : ; . : : : 5 : . 142 
Foreign Intelligence We ee : ; : : : j : . 3 ; . 145 
Notes and Queries :— 
Conversion of Chalk into Marble : : : : : : : : . 149 
Saurian Remains in the Lower Lias_ . : : 5 : ‘ ; ; . 150 
Origin of Species , ; : : : : : : ; : : 7 156 


Reviews :— 
Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches, in New Granada, Equador, Peru, 
and Chile. By William Bollaert, F.R.G.S. . 5 2 : ; 5 . 151 
Essai d’une Réponse & la Question du Prix proposé en 1850 par Académie des 
Sciences pour le concours de 1853, et puis remise pour celui de 1856. Par 


M. le Professeur Bronn : : 3 . b 5 é : : . 154 
The Theology of Geologists. By William Gillespie . : : : . 158 
A Glossary of Mineralogy. By H. W. Bristow, F.G.8. . : : 5 . 159 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


J. E. Lue, Esq., Caerleon ; C. C. Buaxz, Esq. ; The Rev. 8. Lucas, Stow-on-the-Wold ; 
J. Extiort, Esq., Stanhope; Dr. Bzxn, Euston Square; James Wyatt, Esq., F.G-8., 
Bedford ; J. Ketiy, Esq., Geological Survey, Dublin; The Rey. Dr. ANDERSON, New- 
burgh; W. GiItLespre, Esq., Edinburgh; A. Taytor, Esq., Edinburgh; F. Loete 
Prrie, Esq., Cambridge ; J. H. Woon, Esq., Nottingham ; Epwarp Woop, Esq., F.G.S., 
Richmond. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Recent Geological Discoveries in Australia. By the Rev. W. B. CuarKe, M.A., F.GS. 
Sydney: Cook and Co. 1861. 

The Theology of Geologists. By Wititiam Gittespiz, Author of ‘The Necessary 
Existence of God, etc. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black. 1859. 

Siliman’s Journal. January, 1862. 

The Water Springs at Grays. 

Notes on the Cretaceous and Carboniferous Rocks of Texas. By Junes Mazcon. 
Boston: Rand and Avery. 1861. 

The Moon Controversy : Facts and Definitions. By H. Prrieat, Esq. 

On the Direction of the Wind at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the twenty 
years ending December, 1860. By James GuatsHER, Esq., F.R.S. 

The Taconic and Lower Silurian Rocks of Vermont and Canada. By JunEs Maxcon. 
Boston: Rand and Avery. 1862. 

Hétérogénie, ou Traité dela Génération Spontanée. Par Dr. F. A. Poucuzr. Paris: 
Balligre. 1859. 

Causeries Scientifiques. By H.de Paryittz. Paris: Savy. 1862. 

Habitations Lacustres. By F. Noyoy. Lausanne: Bridel. 1860. 

Afbildninger fra det Kongelige Museum for Nordiske Oldsager i Kjébenhayn. By 
J.J. A. Worsaae, Kjébenhavn. Kittendorff. 1854. . 


VOL. V. No. 53.] MAY, 1862. [Price ls. 6d. 


THE GKOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


Gro LOG y. 


eS SY 


cS) 
e 


Wh, 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIB, F.GS., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”’—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON. 


o 
\ ; = 
a ng 


Just Published, 
T.—A new Edition, being the F1Frn, 
Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 1s. 9d., cloth, 


INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY. 
By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. 


II.—A New Edition, being the THIRD, 
Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 6s., 


ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY, 


DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL. 
Bry DAVID PAGE, F.G:S. 


Wiit1am Bruackwoop snp Sons, Edinburgh and London. 


Of whom may be had, by the same Author, 
HANDBOOK OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS AND GEOLOGY. 6s. 


THE PAST AND PRESENT LIFE OF THE GLOBE: being a Sketch in Outline 
of the World’s Life System. 6s. 


Just published, in 8vo, with Coloured Map and Frontispiece, and 82 Woodcuts, price 1és., 


VOLCANOKS: 


THE CHARACTER OF THEIR PHENOMENA, THEIR SHARE IN THE STRUCTURE AND 
COMPOSITION OF THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE, AND THEIR RELATION 
TO ITS INTERNAL FORCES. 


With a Descriptive Catalogue of all known Volcanoes and Volcanic Formations. 
By G. POULETT SCROPH, M.P., F.R.S., F.G.S., M. R. Acad. Naples, ete. 
Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 


London: Loneman, GREEN, LONGMAN, and ROBERTS. 


MICROSCOPES.—_HIGHLEY’S, QUEKETT’S, BEALB’S. 


Ss: 
Quekett’s Pocket Dissecting Microscope, with three onwes, etc., folding into 
a space of 54 inches square by 13 inch thick, as improved by Mr. Highley. 210 0 
Prof. Beale’s Olaieal Pocket Microscope . . 15 0 
Prof. Beale’s Clinical Cabinet Reagents, and Apparatus for Testing Urine, ete., oS 
with recent Improvements by Mr. Highley. . . BN (0) 


Highley’s Hospital Student’s Microscope, with Magnetic Stage, Inclinable 

Body, Plain and Concave Mirror, Side Condenser, Stage and Brass Forceps, 

etc., 1-inch and 14-inch Object- olass, in Case (the price varying according to 

the quality and angular aperture of the Object-glasses) £7.10s.6d.,£10.,and 12 0 0 
Highley’s Large Microscope, on Brooke’s Tripod Stand, Rackwork Adjust- 


ments, ‘ Centering”? Substage, Double Mirror, ete., all of the best con- 
struction : 


10 0 0 
Prof. Beale’s Demonstrating ‘Microscope (for Lecturers), with Lamy, ete. of 
improved construction . 3 0 0 
Highley’s Reagent Cabinet, containing twelve improved Capped Dropping 
Bottles (for Microscopical Testing) in Ebonite Rack . 016 0 


Highley’s Improved Achromatized Gas Microscope Lamp, with Mounting 
Bath, Plate, ete. ; ed OO) 
tes” For Dissecting, Injecting, Mounting Apparatus, Cements, Preservative Fluids, 
Spectrum Analysis Appar atus, Minerals, Rocks, Fossils, etc., see Descriptive Illustrated 
Catalogue (post free for two postage stamps) of ScrentIFIc EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS, 
as aclected and arranged by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, Private Teacher of Elementary 


Science. 
70, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON, W. 


RACTICAL GEOLOGY.—KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.— 

PROFESSOR TENNANT, F.G.S., will commence a course of Lectures on Wednesday 

morning, April 30, at Nine o’clock, having especial reference to the application of Geology to 

Engineering, Mining, Architecture, and Agriculture. The Lectures will be continued on each 
succeeding Friday and Wednesday at the same hour. Fee, £1. 11s. 6d. 

R. W. JELF, D.D., Principat. 
N.B.—The Class will be accompanied by the Professor to the British Museum, the Museum 
of Practical Geology, the Great Exhibition, and to places of geological interest in the country. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


& W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays «PRL. a ee 5 6 O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Speciinens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 0 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of ene a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 

MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. 

PALMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 


It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 
Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 O 
The same, 4. ins. sq. ZOO The same, 4, ins. sq. Oe MD 
MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” 
by the Rey. Wattrr Mitcuert, M.A., and Prorressor Tennant, F.R.G:S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


- Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WatEernovusE HawkINns’s GEo- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct Anrimats—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
jee one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5. 5s. Packing case, 

8. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawrxrns, F.L.S., etc., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s RestoRATIoN oF Exrincr ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, etc., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had, 


CONTENTS. 
Page 


What are the Ventriculites? (Wzth two Plates.) By the EDITOR ‘ d - 161 
Further Discoveries in Heathery Burn Cave. (With TIilustrations.) By J. Et- 
Liort, Esq. ele eer ceth gt a aes Net tee oR Ns 
Geology of the Isle of Man. By T. GRINDLEY, Esq. ‘ : : ; ; aif! 
Proceedings of Geological Societies . : : : : ; . : ; . 183 
Foreign Intelligence ; : : . ‘ . . . ; : - : oe 
Notes and Queries :— 
Synoptical Tables of British Geology . : 5 : a «wha Se alos 
Notice of Feathered Reptiles : : : ; : - 5 : cn 


Glauconite in the Lower Silurian Rocks ; . 4 ; £ 2 eae s: 200 
Canadian Pleistocene Fossils and Climate . 4 F : ; ES . ~ #200 
Review :— 


Physico-Prophetical Essays, on the Locality of the Eternal Inheritance, its Nature 
and Character, the Resurrection Body, and the Mutual Recognition of Glori- 
fied Saints. By Rev. W. Lister, F.G.S. : 4 : : S : . 200 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from Professor Huxtry; C. C. Buaxz, Esq.; T. RUPERT 
Jones, F.G.S.; James Wyatt, F.G.S., Bedford; W.S. Wurrzincy ; J. DINGLE, Esq., 
Durham; F. GrinpLEY, Esq., Glossop; Professor W. Kine, Galway; J. MusHeEn, Esq., 
Birmingham ; Henry THomas, Esq., Lisburne Mines, Pontrhyd-y-Groes; JAMES 
DonatD, Esq., Hampton Court Palace; Mrs. A. D. AcwortH, Northaw, Barnet; Rev. 
Urpan Suitu; Rev. J. S. Percrvat, Freefolk; Rev. W. Lister, Wolverhampton ; 
T. Currey, Esq., Ludlow ; J. Krtry, Esq., Dublin; Mr. J. R. Morrmer, Fimber ; Miss 
MacNEIL1z, Rostrevor ; Captain Hatt, Plymouth; Mr. Gavin Youne, Edinburgh. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Recherches sur l’Hau dans l’Intéricur de la Terre. Par M. DEuEsse. 

Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. 

Mémoires de la Société Impériale d’Emulation d’Abbeville. Buez, Abbeville. 1861. 
(From M. Boucher de Perthes.) 

Volcanoes, their Phenomena, relation to the Internal Forces of the Globe, ete. By P. 
Scropg, Esq. London: Longman and Co. 1862. 

Physico-Prophetical Essays. By Rev. W. Lister. London: Longman and Co. 1862. 

The Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science. Edited by Rey. S. Hoventon. London: 
Williams and Norgate. April, 1862. 

Revue de Géologie pour l’Année 1860. Par M. Drtxsse et M. Lancet. Paris: 
Dunot. 1861. 

Proceedings of the Manchester Philosophical Society. 

Proceedings of the Manchester Geological Society. 

Reports of the Manchester Field-Naturalists’ Society. 

The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Montreal: Dawson. February, 1862. 


VOL. V. No. 54.1] JUNE, 1862. [Price ls. 6d. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 
am 


7—_- 
» 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


Ott BY s..0. MACKIE, E-G-S., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’’—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. EB. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON. 


Published Monthly, Price 2s. 6d., 


STEREOSCOPIC MAGAZINE. 


No. 49 of the Stereoscopic Magazine, to be published on the Ist of July, 
will contain Three very choice Stereographs, taken by Morton Allport, Esq., 
in Tasmania. 


1. 


GeyeraAL View oF Hoparr Town. 
This very clear and extensive view is taken from one of the spurs 
of Mount Wellington. It shows the Derwent and capacious 
Harbour of Hobart Town, with Shipping, and aie Wharves, Public 
Buildings, ete. 
2. 


Vinw in a Forrest oF GuM-TREES. 
A very characteristic view of the commencement of hutting and 
clearing in a forest about six miles from Hobart Town, on the south- 
west flank of Mount Wellington. The famous Eucalypti of Tas- 
mania, interspersed with Evergreen Beech, Sassafras, and Wattles, 
are here seen in their colossal wildness. 


3. 


Tue Tree Ferns or TASMANIA. 
This picture is devoted to a near view of those graceful productions 
of Tasmania, the Tree Ferns. It is taken on a rivulet, known as 
the Wellington Rivulet, about four miles from Hobart Town. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


MICROSCOPES.—HIGHLEY’S, QUEKETT’S, BEALE'’S. 


25, 
Quekett’s Pocket Dissecting Microscope, with three Lenses, etc., folding into 
a space of 5% inches square by 13 inch thick, as improved by Mr. pao 2 10 
Prof. Beale’s Clinical Pocket Microscope . . SRE OE esl) 
Prof. Beale’s Clinical Cabinet Reagents, and Apparatus for Testing Uri ine, etc., 
with recent Improvements by Mr. Highley. . 2° 5 
Highley’s Hospital Student’s Microscope, with Magnetic Stage, Inclinable 
Body, Plain and Concave Mirror, Side Condenser, Stage and Brass Forceps, 
ete., 1-inch and 14-inch Object-glass, in Case (the price varying according to 
the quality and angular aperture of the Object-glasses) £7.10s.6d.,£10.,and 12 0 © 
Highley’s Large Microscope, on Brooke’s Tripod Stand, Rackwork Adjust- 
ments, “ Centering” Substage, Double Mirror, etc., all of the best con- 


Se we & 


struction . . 1030) =O 
Prof. Beale’s Demonstr ating Microscope. (for Lecturers), with Lamy, ete. of 

improved construction. 3410: 20 
Highley’s Reagent Cabinet, containing twelve improved Capped Dropping 

Bottles (for Microscopical Testing) in Ebonite Rack . OG 730 
Highley’s Improved Achromatized Gas Microscope Lamp, with Mounting 

Bath, Plate, etc. . Be ae OO 


Kas For Disse cting, Injecting, Mounting Apparatus, Cements, Preservative Fiuids, 
Spectrum Analysis Apparatus, Minerals, Rocks, Fossils, ete., see Descriptive Illustrated 
Catalogue (post free for two postage stamps) of ‘SCIENTIFIC EpucaTIonaL COLLECTIONS, 
as selected and arranged by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, Private Teacher of Elementary 


Science. 


70, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON, W. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 O 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays LLG ian A dik 5 5 O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet withtwelve drawers . . . . 21 0 0 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of aeiane, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 


MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Talc, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. 

PALAZMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Ciay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 

Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 


Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 O 
The same, 4. ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” 
by the Rev. WatrEer MitcHeEtt, M.A., and Proressor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WaTrErrnovusrt Hawkins’s GrEo- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct AniMALs—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 
8s. Gd. extra. 


‘SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawxrns, F.L.S., etc., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s Resroration oF Extincr AntmMAts. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, etc., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C,—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 
Page 


Human Remains from the Valley of the Trent. (With a Plate.) By Professor 
HpxtEy, HORS: *. ; : : : : : : : : : . 201 
On the Crania of Ancient Races of Men. (With numerous Illustrations.) By C. C. 


BraKkeE, Esq. . : : . : . . ‘ : : . : . 205 

On the “ Fossil Beads” of the Drift. By J. Wyatt, Esq., F.G.S. . 5 g . 233 
Correspondence :-— 

The so-called “Fossil Beads”’ of the Drift. By T. Rupert Jonzs, Esq. . . 235 
Proceedings of Geological Societies :— 

Origin of Bone Beds. By Grorae H. Roperts ; } . ; : . 237 
Foreign Intelligence :— 

Meeting of Geologists at Poligny ; ; ; : : : . ‘ . 238 

Hoss Canoe at Cordon” (> 2) tu 1 SN SS A nee ee eas 
Notes and Queries :— 

Decomposing Basalt, Giants’ Causeway. (With a Plate.) . area : . 239 

Mammalian Remains at Demblans_ : : - : - : : . 239 

Microscopic Organisms in the Paleozoic Rocks of New York. | : . . 239 
Review :— 


Monographie des Gastéropodes et des Céphalopodes des Couches Crétacées Supé- 
rieures du Limbourg. By M. Binkhorst . : ; . : . : . 240 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from W. W. WuitTakeER, Esq., F.G.S., Gravesend; G. H. 
West, Esq., Rugby; C. Exton, Esq., Holt; C. C. Buaxz, Esq., Brunswick Square ; 
J. Cresy, Esq.; W. N. Lawson, Esq.; G. V. Du Noyzr, Esq., Enniscorthy ; THomas 
PURDUE, Esq., Whitney ; GEORGE W11soN, Hsq., Wakefield ; Professor W. Kine, Gal- 
way; J. MusHen, Esq., Birmingham; Dr. Bevan, Llanellen, Abergavenny ; EDwaRpD 
Woop, Esq., Richmond; JamMEs Horne, Esq., Glasgow; Miss MacNEILuiz, Rostrevor ; 
Miss A. B. WELLWooD; GEoRGE TaTE, Esq., Alnwick. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Recherches sur |’ Eau dans |’ Intérieur de la Terre. Par M. DELESSE. 

Geology of the Railway from Worcester to Hereford. By the Rev. W. 8S. Symonps. 
London: Hardwicke. 1862. ; 

Anniversary Address to Geological Society. By Professor Huxtry. London: Taylor 
and Francis. 1862. 

Défense des Colonies. Part II. By M. J. Barravpr. Prague: Kleinseite. 1862. 

On the Teeth in Man and the Anthropoid Apes. By Dr. WzsB. 

Monographie des Céphalopodes des Couches Crétacées Supérieures du Limbourg. By 
M. Van DEN Binkuorst. Brussels: Muquardt. 1862. 


VOL. V. No. 55.] JULY, 1862. [Pricer ls. 6d. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


i Fn gre ep a Ee, 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., FS.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
_undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & OO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEBN STREET, LONDON. 


TO GEOLOGISTS. 


Large and Small Collections, or Single Specimens of SILURIAN 
FOSSILS, from the neighbourhood of Ludlow, for Sale; apply to 


A. MARSTON, CAVE STREET, LUDLOW. 
SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 


SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, 


MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, 


Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL 
HISTORY SPECIMENS, Etc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, AT THE 
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 


A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 
70, DEAN STREET; SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


Just Published, 
BRITISH CONCHOLOGY; or, An Account oF tHE Mo.uusca 


which now inhabit the British Isles and the surrounding Seas, with Particulars of 
their Habits and Distribution. By J. GWYN JEFFREYS, F.RS., F.GS., ete. 
Vol. I., containing the Land and Freshwater Shells, post 8vo, with nine plates. 
Price 12s. 


JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. 


NOTICE. 

BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.—Lovett Reeve begs to announce that 
his ‘Manual of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of the British Isles,’ which has 
been three years in preparation, will be published in the Autumn. It will be illus- 
trated with a series of highly-finished wood-engravings of the living animal of each 
genus, and with two or more views, between three and four hundred in all, of the 
shell of each species. Price 10s. 6d. 

In a volume on the same subject, by Mr. Jeffreys, just published by Mr. Van 
Voorst, illustrations are not given of the species, on the ground, as stated in the Pre- 
face, that ‘‘the cost and price of the work would have been greatly increased, except 
by resorting to the inartistic and unsatisfactory substitute of woodcuts.” Mr. Reeve 
is happy to be able to state that this stricture cannot apply to his woodcuts, as the 
proofs of nearly the whole of them were examined and highly approved of by Mr. 
Jéffreys before the production of his work was even meditated. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


New and Enlarged Editions. 


I.—A new Edition, being the Frrrn, 
Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 1s. 9d., cloth, 


INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY. 
By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. 


II.—A New Edition, being the Taran, 
Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 6s., 


ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY, 


DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL. 
By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. 
Wit1iiam Buackwoop snp Sons, Edinburgh and London. 
Of whom may be had, by the same Author, 
HANDBOOK OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS AND GEOLOGY. 6s. 


THE PAST AND PRESENT LIFE OF THE GLOBE: being a Sketch in Outline 
of the World’s Life System. 6s. , 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . &2 2 O 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays area a aM a 8tG Sy ab. O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 0 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of ae a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 


MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. 

PALAOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 


Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. a 0770 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” 
by the Rev. Wattrr Mitrcurrt, M.A., and Proressor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WarErnovuse Hawxkrns’s GEo- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct AniMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawsrns, F.L.S., etc., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawxins’s RestToRATION oF Extinct AniImats. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 


Glacial Action in South of Ireland. By G. V. Du NoryEr. (With two Plates Mee 
Woodcuts.) . : : er pane : : : . 0 . ; . 241 
Origin of Species. By Professor Kine . : ; : : 5 ; : . 204: 
Correspondence :-— 
Trinidad Pitch Lakes . : : ; : ; : ; ; ‘ ; . 258 
Human Skeleton at Leicester : : 5 : 5 5 ; : ‘ . 260 


Proceedings of Geological Societies :— 


Distribution of Northern Plants. By Professor OLIVER. . : é . 262 

On Coal. By W. W. Suytu, F.RS. . : : : z : . 263 

On the Loess of North of France and South of England. By J. PREsTwicu, 

E.R.S. (With Woodcut.) : é 4 : : Bele ai : . 265 

Notes and Queries :— 

Corylacez in Lignite near Glasgow. : ; ; ; : . 272 

Mammalian Remains at Bedford . : : ‘ poi gs : ; . 273 
Foreign Intelligence :— 

Date of the Elevation of the Rocky Mountains . 4 : . : . . 273 

The Coal-field of Mons : : : ‘ 5 : ; : ; . 274 
Reviews :— 

“Further Discoveries of Flint Implements,” By J. Hvans, F.S.A. . . 274 

“ Fishes of the Devonian Period.” By Professor HUXLEY .. : : . 276 

“Revue de Géologie pour l’Année 1860.” By MM. DenzssE and LAUGEL. . . 280 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from Dr. R. N. Rupipes, Port Elizabeth; C. CARTER BLAKE, 
Esq., Brunswick Square; Dr. Fatconer; G. V. Du Noyer, Esq.; J. Puant, Esq., 
Leicester. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science. Edited by Rev. Professor Haventon. July, 
1862. 

Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society. No. 14. 1862. 

Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Masson, Paris. 1862. 


VOL. V. No. 56.] AUGUST, 1862. [Price 1s. 6d. 


THE GEKOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.G.S., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & OO. 


PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUERN STREBT, LONDON, 


NOTICE. 


BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.—Lovett Reeve begs to announce that 
his ‘Manual of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of the British Isles,’ which has 
been three years in preparation, will be published in the Autumn. It will be illus- 
trated with a series of highly-finished wood-engravings of the living animal of each 
genus, and with two or more views, between three and four hundred in all, of the 
shell of each species. Price 10s. 6d. 

In a volume on the same subject, by Mr. Jeffreys, just published by Mr. Van 
Voorst, illustrations are not given of the species, on the ground, as stated in the Pre- 
face, that “the cost and price of the work would have been greatly increased, except 
by resorting to the inartistic and unsatisfactory substitute of woodcuts.” Mr. Reeve 
is happy to be able to state that this stricture cannot apply to his woodcuts, as the 
proofs of nearly the whole of them were examined and highly approved of by Mr. 
Jeffreys before the production of his work was even meditated. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 
SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, 
MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, 


Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL 
HISTORY SPECIMENS, Evc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, 
AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 


70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


JURY AWARDS TO SAMUEL HICHLEY. 
CLASS XIII.—A MEDAL “ For Stupents’ Microscopes combin- 


ing cheapness and good workmanship, and for excellence in other Optical Instru- 
ments,’ comprising IMPROVED POLARISCOPES, SPECTROSCOPES, TELESCOPES, ELECTRIC 
and OxXY-HYDROGEN Lecturers’ DEMONSTRATING LANTERN, etc. 


CLASS XIV.—HONOURABLE MENTION “ For excellence of 


Apparatus exhibited,’ comprising PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THE Magic LANTERN, 
PHOTO-MICROGRAPHIC CAMERA, and LENSES, etc. 

CLASS XXIX.—A MEDAL “ For the excellence of his Educational 
Collections,” to illustrate CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, OSTEO- 
LoGy, ZooLoey, ete. 


A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue of the Objects Exhibited, post free for four stamps. 


S. HIGHLEY, 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 


PRIZE MEDAL for Connections or Mineratogy anp GEOLOGY 
was awarded to JAMES R. GREGORY, 25, Golden Square, London. 
In Class XXIX., No. 5597, a number of small elementary collections, il- 
lustrating the manufacture of various materials from minerals, etc.; also 
for the study of Mineralogy and Geology. In Class I., No. 181, is exhi- 
bited a unique series of Fossil Old Red Sandstone Fishes, and some very 
fine specimens of Minerals. Larger collections, single specimens, Ham- 
mers, Diagrams, Books, etc., can be obtained at the museum at the above 
address. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :-— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays Pe ember ke ee 5 5 O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 


MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Caleareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, ete. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zine, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, ete. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. 

PALAMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Ciay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE, 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 38000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
ease on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 


It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 


Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
The same, 4. ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ 
by the Rey. Watter Mitcwe., M.A., and Prorrssor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WatErHoUsE Hawktns’s Gro- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5. 5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 

SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawkins, F.L.S., etc., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
HAwkIns’s REsTORATION OF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, ete., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 


| Page 
M. Gras’ Attack on the Evidence of the Flint-Implements in Respect to the Anti- 
quity of Man . ; . 281 
Notes on the Geology of Merdetone. (With ie eliniees) By W. H. Ten, ben . 294 
Correspondence :-— 7 
Professor King’s Synoptical Table é j : ‘ . 5 : : . 801 
Tertiary Mammalian Remains at Dulwich . : i ‘ : ; : . 802 
Sicilian Bone-Caves  . : ‘ : 6 ; : ‘ ; : « p oaeeO2 
Origin of Species : : ; : 5 : : é . 803 
Monoeraphy of the Cablontcal Sst ey. : ; : : ; : F . 805 
Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition : : : 4 , : : . 306 
Proceedings of Geological Societies . . . . ‘ ; : : : . 309 
Notes and Queries :— 
Anthracite in Silurian Rocks : 5 : : . 312 
Further Notes on Human Skulls from Heather: Bare Bey ete. . : ; . 313 
Fossils from Treflach Quarry é A , ; A fs : : . . 316 
Sharks’ Teeth at Panama . : : : : ; 3 : : : . 316 
Bituminous Sandstone 6 ; : : , > 5 : : : . 316 
Human Remainsin Alluvium . : ‘ : : ; , ‘ : a BRT 
Foreign Intelligence j , as as : : : : : : : saad) 
Reviews :— 
On the Zoology of Ancient Europe. 5 < : 5 5 : . 318 
Proceedings of Geologists’ Association, No. 8 : . Secrest : : . 319 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from Rev. J. 8. Tats, Markington Rectory, Ripley, York- 
shire; J. Horne, Hsq., Glasgow ; J. WYATT, Esq., P.G.8., Bedford ; THOMAS GRINDLEY, 
Esq., Glossop; C. JickEs, Esq, Woodlands; C. C. Buakr, Esq.; Mr. J. Exziorr, 
Stanhope. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


On the Zoology of Ancient Europe. By A. Newron, M.A. Macmillan. 1862. 

On Isodiametric Lines as Means of Representing the Distribution of Sedimentary Clay 
and Sandy Strata as distinguished from Calcareous Strata, with Special Reference to the 
Carboniferous Rocks of Great Britam. By Epwarp Hott, F.G:S8. 

Bulletin del’ Académie Royale de Belgique. No. 5. Bruxelles. 1862. 

Transactions of the Manchester Philosophical Society. No. 13. 1862. 

Bulletin de ? Académie Royale de Belgique. Nos. 2,3,4. 1862. 

The Law of Increase and the Structure of Man. By Dr. Liwarzix. 

Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. No. 8. 

Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society. No. 14. 

On the Failure of Geological Attempts in Greece prior to the Epoch of Alexander. By 
Dr. J. Scuvarcz. Part I. London: Taylor and Francis. 1862. 

Theoretical Considerations on the Conditions under which the Drift Deposits contain- 
ing the Remains of Extinct Mammalia and Flint-Implements were accumulated, and 
their Geological Age. (From Proceedings of the Royal Society.) By Jos—EPH PRESTWICH, 
Hsq., FR. S. 1862. 

Flint Implements in the Drift, being an Recor of Further Discoveries on the Conti- 
nent and in Hugland. (From the ¢ Archeologia.’) By Joun Evans, F.S.A. 1862. 


NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 


Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications 
having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested 
that in future all swbseriptions and communications relating to the supply of the ‘ Geologist’ 
be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co., 5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. 

The Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular 
subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. 


MOL. N. INO.07. | SEPTEMBER, 1862. [Prick 1s. 6d. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”— Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. BR. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON, 


ee eee 


ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES. 
Director—SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, D.C.L., M.A., F.R.S., ere. 


During the Session 1862-3, which will commence on the 6th of October, the following 
COURSES of LECTURES and PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS will be given :— 
. Chemistry—By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.RB.S., ete. 

. Metallurgy—By John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. 
. Natural History—By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. 
ie ; By Warington W. Smyth, M.A. F.B.S. 
. Geology—By A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. 
. Applied Mechanics—By Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. 
. Physics—By J. Tyndall, F.R.S. 

Instruction in Mechanical Drawing, by Mr. Binns. 

The Fee for Students desirous of becoming Associates, is £30 in one sum, on entrance, 
or two annual payments of £20, exclusive of the Laboratories. 

Pupils are received in the Royal College of Chemistry (the Laboratory of the School), 
under the direction of Dr. Hofmann, and in the Metallurgical Laboratory, under the 
direction of Dr. Percy. 

Tickets to separate Courses of Lectures are issued at £3 and £4 each. 

Officers in the Queen’s Service, Her Majesty’s Consuls, acting Mining Agents and 
Managers, may obtain tickets at reduced prices. 

Certificated Schoolmasters, Pupil Teachers, and others engaged in Education, are also 
admitted to the lectures at reduced fees. 

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has granted two Scholarships, and several 
others have also been established. 

For a prospectus and information, apply at the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn 
Street, London. TRENHAM REEKS, Registrar. 


BONonLwondr 


BRITISH CONCHCLOGY.—ILLUSTRATED INDEX OF BRI- 
TISH SHELLS. By G. B. Sowrrsy, F.L.8. Impl. 8vo, extra cloth gilt, 30s., 
containing 700 coloured engravings of 600 species, being all known of Land, Fresh- 
water, and Marine. The only other work, containing nearly all the species, is nearly 
eight times its price, and gives fewer species by about forty. One work recently 
published at 12s. contains the Land and Freshwater species only, with few illustra- 
tions. Another is promised of the same division, to be illustrated by uncoloured 
woodcuts. In reviewing the former of these two, the ‘ Atheneum’ speaks inciden- 
tally of ‘‘ Mr. Sowerby’s Illustrated Index, which, on account of its beautiful illus- 
trations, would form an excellent companion ” to that work. Yet although little more 
than an index, as its name implies, it contains in a condensed form all the essential 
inforniation respecting names, synonyms, localities, and important distinctions ; and 
all of every genus is seen at a glance. London: Simpkin and Co. Paris: Roth- 
schild and Co. Or, to be had with advantage, direct from the proprietor, G. B. 
Sowerby, Naturalist, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. 


NOTICKH. © 
BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.—Love zi Reeve begs to announce that 


his ‘Manual of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of the British Isles,’ which has 
been three years in preparation, will be published in the Autumn. It will be illus- 
trated with a series of highly finished wood-engravings of the living animal of each 
genus, and with two or more views, between three and four hundred in all, of the 
shell of each species. Price 10s. 6d. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


YAMUEL HIGHLEY, 
SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, 


MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, 


Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL 
HISTORY SPECIMENS, eErc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, 
AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 
70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 O 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays eee A oh tatiay Oe 630 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers Mahl ee | wi) pA Cima 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet withtwelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of seience, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 


MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Talc, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, ete. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. 

PALASOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
ease on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 

Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWiTH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 
Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 


~ 


The same, 4. ins, sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5S Oen.0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ 
by the Rey. WaLtTER Mircuett, M.A., and PRoFrEssor TENNANT, F.R.G:S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. Warrrnovusr Hawkrns’s Gro- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, [gyuanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Lchthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawxrns, F.L.S., ete., adapted for 
Edueational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawxins’s Restoration oF Extincr Animaus. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. TENNANT, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, etc., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geclogy can be had. 


CONTENTS. 
Page 


Supposed Footprints in the Cambrian Rocks of the Isle of Man. By J. Tayror, 


Esq., Member of the Council of the Manchester Geological Society . . 321 
Past Life in America. By C. Carter Buakz, Esq., Lecturer on Zoology at the 
London Institution . 5 ; : . 823 


Excursion to Reculver. By Dr. E210, Gisp, F.GS. : : 4 : . 330 
Notes on the Geology of Maidstone. (Continued.) By W. H. Buenstep, Esq. 


(With two Plates.) . : : : 334 
Correspondence :-— 
Muskham Skull . : : 6 . 4 : : : : 5 , . 841 
Yorkshire Flint Implements. . 5 5 : : ‘ ; : ‘ . 342 
Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition :— 
South Australia, . 5 : : j é : ‘ : : . 5 . 344 
Geological Institute of Austria . : : 5 4 F : . 847 
Proceedings of Geological Societies . : ; : : ‘ ; : . . 351 
Notes and Queries :— 
Fossiliferous Caye at Meliha ; : : : 5 : : : : . 353 
Human Remains ; 5 : : : : : eis : : . 353 
Deer in England . : : . . : 5 ; 4 . . : . 353 
Reviews :— . 
The Laws which Regulate the Deposition of Lead-ore in Veins, illustrated by the 
Examination of the Geological Structure of the Mining District of Alston 
Moor. By W. Wallace 354. 


On the Failure of Geological Attempts on Greece, prior to the Epoch Of Mlexander 
By Julius Schvarez, M.D. . : ; : . : : : : . 857 
Volcanos and the Character of their Phenomena. By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq. . 360 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from M. Ep. DE VERNEUIL, Paris; Mr. GroreE Tate, Aln- 
wick; Mr. W. Benstrep, Maidstone; E. Woop, Esq., Richmond; C. C. BLaKE "Esq. 
London; Joun Taytor, Esq., Crewe; Dr. EH. D. Gipp; W. WHITTAKER, Esq., 
Gravesend. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Explanations to accompany Sheet 145 of the Maps of the Geological Survey of Iveland 
illustrating part of the County of Tipperary. By Messrs. Jukes, WYNNE, and BAIey. 
London: Longman and Co. 

Faune Primordiale dans la Chaine Cantabrique. Par MM. CasiAno DE Prapo, ED. 
DE VERNEUIL et J. BARRAUDE. ; 

Coupes du Versant Méridional des Pyrénées. Par MM. Dz Vurnevit et KnYSERLING. 

Géologie du Sud-est de ? Espagne. Par MM. DE VeRNEvin et ConLoms. 

On the Ancient Flint Implements of Yorkshire and the Modern Fabrication of Speci- 
mens. By the Rev. THos. Wiutsaire, M.A., F.G.S., ete. 

Nols sur pnt Partie du rae Basque-Espagnol, accompagnée d’une Carte. Par MM. 
DE VERNEUIL ; CoLLOMB et TRIGER, et suivie d'une description d échi 
DEAE Gomis ? = ption de quelques échinodermes. 
5 Menee ul Be eae une Partie de la Sierra Morena et des Montagnes 

eToléde. Par M. Castano DE PRADO; suivi d’une description d i is’ 2 
eontrent. Par MM. DE VERNEUIL et BARRAUDE. Pinon, des: tSeateeutns) 22h 


On the Western End of the London Basin, and on the G ch 
By W. Wiirraker, F.G.8. 1862. : SUAS SU SERS 22 aRLE 


Hsquisse d’une Description Physique et Géologique de l’Arrondissement de Mont- 
béliard. Par Dr. Cu. ContEsEAN. Leipzig: J. Rothschild. 1862. 


NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 


Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications 
having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested 
that in future all subscriptions and communications relating to the supply of the “Geslogist : 
he addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co.,5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden 

The Price of the ‘Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. cach number. It is sent postage free to regular 
subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. 


VOL. V. No. 58.] OCTOBER, 1862. [Price ls. 6d. 


THE GHKOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GHOLOGY. 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’”—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natwral Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEBN STREET, LONDON, 


ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES. 
Drrector—SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, D.C.L., M.A., F.RS., pre. 


During the Session 1862-3, which will commence on the 6th of October, the following 
COURSES of LECTURES and PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS will be given:— 
. Chemistry—By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.R.S., ete. 

. Metallurgy—By John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. 
. Natural History—By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. 
Mie i By Warington W. Smyth, M.A., F.R.S. 
. Geology—By A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. 
. Applied Mechanics—By Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. 
. Physics—By J. Tyndall, F.R.S. 

Instruction in Mechanical Drawing, by Mr. Binns. 

The Fee for Students desirous of becoming Associates, is £30 in one sum, on entrance, 
or two annual payments of £20, exclusive of the Laboratories. 

Pupils are received in the Royal College of Chemistry (the Laboratory of the School), 
under the direction of Dr. Hofmann, and in the Metallurgical Laboratory, under the 
direction of Dr. Percy. 

Tickets to separate Courses of Lectures are issued at £3 and £4 each. 

Officers in the Queen’s Service, Her Majesty’s Consuls, acting Mining Agents and 
Managers, may obtain tickets at reduced prices. 

Certificated Schoolmasters, Pupil Teachers, and others engaged in Education, are also 
admitted to the lectures at reduced fees. 

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has granted two Scholarships, and several 
others have also been established. : 

For a prospectus and information, apply at the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn 
Street, London. TRENHAM REEKS, Registrar. 


ONO WNEe 


AE INERALOGY.—KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.—Professor 

TENNANT, F.G.S., will give a COURSE OF LECTURES ON MINERALOGY, with 

a view to facilitate the study of GEOLOGY, and of the application of Mineral Substances in 

the ARTS, The Lectures begin on WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 818, at Nine 

o'clock They will be continued on each succeeding Friday and Wednesday at the same hour. 
Fee, £2. 2s. R. W. JELF, D.D., Principat. 


On the 15th will be published, price 5s., 


PHOSPHORESCENCE ; 


OR, THE 


EMISSION OF LIGHT BY MINERALS, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS. 
By DR. T. L. PHIPSON, F.C.S., ere. 


With numerous Illustrations. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 
SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, 


MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, 


Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL 
HISTORY SPECIMENS, eErc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, 
AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 


A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 


70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 
*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays ee ee ets, Ts 5 5 0 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 0 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 


MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calecareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, ete. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. 

PALAOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Ciay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 


It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 O Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ 
by the Rey. Waiter MircHett, M.A., and Prorrssor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supphed with Mr. WarerRnouse Hawkins’s Gro- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE HxtT1ncT ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.53. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawxrns, F.L.S., ete., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 imches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s RESTORATION OF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc., can _be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 

Page 
Likes and Dislikes . : : 6 5; : : . : : . 361 
On the Metamorphosis of Rocks in the Cape Town District, South Africa. By Dr. 
R. N. RuBIDGE Wig S00 

Some Account of Barrettia, a new Fossil Shell from the Hippurite Limestone of 
Jamaica. By 8S. P. Woopwarp, Esq. (With two Plates.) . ; : . 872 
Notes on the Geology of Maidstone. (Continued.) By W. H. BensteEp, Esq. . 378 


Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition :— 


Canada j ; ; ; ; : : ; ; : : i ‘ : . 382 

Zollverein . : : : ; : 3 : : A : : P . 891 
Notes and Queries :— 

Human Remains in Peat . : : 6 : : : brie dele : . 396 
Reviews :— 


Geology of Montbéliard. By Dr. C. Contejean . : : ; : : . 397 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from A. B. Wynne, Esq., Athlone; Count Marsenatt, 
Vienna; M. HarpinerEr, Vienna; Mr. Rozerr Mortimer, Frimley ; Professor Kine, 
Galway; W. H. Brnstep, Esq., Maidstone; Dr. G. B. Bzvan, Abergavenny; Dr. 
RupipGE, Port Elizabeth; Mr. Kp. Trypaut (too late for insertion) ; C. W. CRocKERBY, 
Chichester ; C. C. BuaKsz, Esq.; Dr. G. D. Gips. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Wisconsin ; its Natural Resources and Industrial Progress. Madison: State Printing 
Office. 1862. 


NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 


Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications 
having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested 
that in future all subscriptions and communications relating to the supply of the < Geologist 3 
be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co.,5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. 

The Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular 
subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. 


VOL. V. No. 59.] NOVEMBER, 1862. [Price ls, 6d, 


THE GKOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


———— . 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J, EB. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON. 


Just Published, 2 vols., with Maps and Wood Engravings, 26s., 


THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. 


BY 


PROFESSOR C. PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.SS.L. & E., 


ASTRONOMER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND, 
AUTHOR OF ‘TENERIFFE, AN ASTRONOMER’S EXPERIMENT, ETC. 


NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 


“Tt abounds with pleasant humour, and contains passages of powerful descrip- 
tive writing. ’—Atheneum. 

“The volumes before us are likely to promote a better understanding of Russia 
and the Russians than any book that has lately appeared on the subject... . 
The chapter devoted to ‘Struve’s Vertical Circle’ is penned with the zeal of a 
man of science animated with the enthusiasm of a poet.” —Critie. 

“The present work will be even more popular [than ‘ Teneriffe ’], inasmuch as 
it mainly consists of graphic descriptions of manners and places in Russia, 
scientific matters being only incidentally touched upon.”— Parthenon. 

«The advantage of knowing what to observe, and how to observe, to a writer 
of travels, is inestimable. The Astronomer Royal for Scotland possesses this 
quality in an eminent degree, and it gives a special value to his work.” — Daily 
News. 

~The worth of the book is, that it enables us to realize what life in Russia is, 
and gives colour and form to our generally very vague impressions of one of the 
greatest of modern nations.” —Guwardian. 

“‘The scientific portions of the book are, we think, the best and most interest- 
ing. His interview with the Grand Duke Constantine was mm every way satis- 
factory. In Astronomy, Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology, and the application of 
science to the wants of our daily life, Professor Smyth reports much information 
gathered in this journey.” —G'lobe. 

‘“We have risen from the perusal of his volumes with a livelier, and, we 
believe, truer, impression of the great Russian Empire. Its history, politics, 
religion, art, literature, science, climate, and resources, pass under his review; 
and his easy, natural, graceful pen gives light to whatever he touches. The philo- 
sophical and scientific observer is everywhere in these volumes; nowhere the 
formal statist or dry chronicler of facts. It only varies the subject of our agree- 
able communicative traveller that he at times emerges upon us as the Astro- 
nomer Royal in a description of the Pulkova Observatory, or by a peep at the 
Russian heavens through some of its great instruments.’— Witness. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA ST., COVENT GARDEN. 


[NICE STINEE Daas Oa EXHIBITION.—On and after 
NOVEMBER 3rd, 


THE MICROSCOPES, SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, POLARIZATION OF 
LIGHT, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC, 
PHOTOGRAPHIC, and LECTURERS’ DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS, 
The extensive Series of 
SCIENCE and ART PHOTOGRAPHS for the MAGIC LANTERN, 
and the SCIENTIFIC NATURAL HISTORY EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS, 


Exhibited by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 
For which 
T'wo Prize Medals and Honourable Mention were awarded, 
Will be on SALE in CLASSES 13, 14, and 29, at the Building. 
A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue by Post, for Four Stamps, on Application to 
79, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . »« £2 2 0 

*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays NEA Oy oh i Mees | 5 5 O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . 


More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world, 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 

MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. 

PALASOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, etc. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE, 


Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 38000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. 


It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 


Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
The same, 4ins.sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. 5 0 0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ 
by the Rev. WattER MitcnHet, M.A., and PRoressor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. Warrrnovuse Hawxrns’s Gro- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
pale one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 
8s. 6d. extra. 


‘SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawkins, F.L.S., ete., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s, 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkxins’s Restoration oF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 


The Dragon-Tree of the Kentish Rag. By the Epitor. (With Plate.) : . 401 
On the Restoration of Pteraspis. By Rev. Huen Mircuett, M.A. H : . 404 
Correspondence :— 
Origin of Flint-Veins in Chalk : ; - ‘ ° . ‘ . . + 406 
Red Sandstone Blocks of phe ae : ; ; : : 5 ; . 407 
The Kirkdale Cavern . : : : : : . 5 ; . 408 
Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition : — 
The Coal Mines of Austria . ; : , : : ‘ 5 : : . 408 
Strata of High Park Colliery ‘ : A , S35) He 5 3 . 414 
British Association Meeting at Geirace — 
On Bituminous Schists and their Relations to Coal. By Professor ANSTED . . 416 


On the Skiddaw Slate Veins. By Professor Harkness, F.R.S. . : : . 420 
On the Palxontology of Mineral Veins. By Cuartes Moors, Esq., F.GS.. . 420 
On the Geology of Sligo. By A.B. Wynne, Esq. . ; . 422 
On the Cause of the Difference in the State of Preservation ‘of Fossil Shells. By 

H. C. Sorzy, Esq., F.R.S. . : : : : ‘ s ’ ; . 423 


Notes and Queries :— 


The Kyson Monkey . 5 . 425 
Human Skeleton at Kellet. “By 0. Canrer Fas Tied? ana Prof, Busx, E.R. g. A2A 
Human Remains in River Beds. By C. Carter BuaxKE, ve : . - . 425 
Vegetable Remains at Bournemouth , : sais ee : . 427 
Fossil Monkey in the Miocene . : Shi eps eae Seis, Sh at sore 


Trish Drift Fossils. By A. B. Want ORG 5 5 ; : . ; » 428 
Footprints in Carboniferous Rocks . : 5 : : : : 5 . 429 


Eosaurus Acadianus . : 5 ; : » : : : : ; . 429 

Great American Desert 5 5 . 5 : : 5 ; : : . 430 

Fossil Fish in Magnesian Limestone . . : . ; ; : 5 » 430 
Foreign Intelligence :— 

Excavations at Antwerp. 5 é 5 ° . : : : : . 432 
Review :— 


Essays and Observations on Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, 
and Geology. By John Hunter, F.R.S. With Notes by Professor Owen . 434 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


Communications received from J. PENGELLY, Esq., F.G.S., Torquay ; J. W. SALTER, 
Esq., F.G.S.; C. Carter Buaxe, Esq.; Prof. W. Kine, F.G.S., Galway; Prof. HarK- 
ness, F.G.S., Belfast; W. 8S. Mryrr, Godalming; W. PENGELLY, F.G.S., Torquay; C. 
Moore, Hsq., Bath. 


SOOKS RECEIVED. 


Apergu Géologique du Département de la Moselle. Par C. Frriprict, Professeur aux 
Keoles municipales de Metz. Paris: J. Rothschild. 1862. 

Etude de ’Etage Kimméridien dans les Environs de Montbéliard et dans le J ura, la 
France et V Angleterre. Par Cu, CONTEJEAN. Leipzig : J. Rothschild. 1859. 

The Earth : its Mechanism. By H. Worms, E.R.A.S., F.G.S8. London: Longman. 1862. 


NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 


Several mistakes haying occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications 
having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested 
that in future all subscriptions and communications relating to the supply of the ‘ Geologist’ 
be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co., 5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, 

The Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular 
subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. 


VOL. V. No. 60.] DECEMBER, 1862. [Prick ls. 6d. 


THE GEOLOGIST. 


AN ILLUSTRATED 


POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE 


OF 


GEOLOGY. 


WN PO ae 
WGNIS, 


Wh) we 
; 


he} 


EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.G:S., F.S.A. 


“Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats 
undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’—Herschel : 
Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. 


LONDON: 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 


PRINTED BY J. BE. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEBN STREBBT, LON DON. 


| 
LS 


Just Published, royal 8vo, cloth, price £1. 1s., 
Tlustrated with Geological Map of Swaledale, and numerous Geological Sections. 


DEPOSITION OF LEAD ORE: 


AN INQUIRY INTO THE DEPOSITION OF LEAD ORE IN THE 
MINERAL VEINS OF SWALEDALE, YORKSHIRE. 


By LONSDALE BRADLEY, F.G:S. 


LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 


ee ind aan EX HIBITION.—On and after 
NOVEMBER 3rd, 


THE MICROSCOPES, SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, POLARIZATION OF 
LIGHT, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC, 
PHOTOGRAPHIC, and LECTURERS’ DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS, 
The extensive Series of 
SCIENCE and ART PHOTOGRAPHS for the MAGIC LANTERN, 
and the SCIENTIFIC NATURAL HISTORY EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS, 


Exhibited by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 
For which 
Two Prize Medals and Honourable Mention were awarded, 
Will be on SALE in CLASSES 13, 14, and 29, at the Building. 


A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue by Post, for Four Stamps, on Application to - 
70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 


Just Published, Price 1s. (by post free), 


A DESCRIPTIVE ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE 


OF 


SAMUEL HIGHLEY’S EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS 


OF SPECIMENS, APPARATUS, PHOTOGRAPHIC MAGIC LANTERN 
VIEWS, etc., to illustrate 


MINERALOGY, GHOLOGY, ZOOLOGY, MICROSCOPY, ete. 


LONDON: SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, W. 


Just published, price 5ds., 


PHOSPHORESCENCE; 


OR, THE 


EMISSION OF LIGHT BY MINERALS, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS. 
By DR. T. L. PHIPSON, E-C.S., Enc. 


With numerous Illustrations. 


LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 


R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 


W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, 
which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 


100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 


#200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays te Tie Peer 5 5 O 
300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 0 


More extensive Collections, cither to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas 
each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches 
of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the 
world. 

* A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- 
land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a 
Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— 

MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, 
Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, 
Tourmaline, Spinel, Caleareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, 
Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. 

NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in 
the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zine, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. 

ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, 
Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. . 

PALMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. 

SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 

TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. 

In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select, 


EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. 


Mr. Trnnant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, 
which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, 
Canada, Wales, ete., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, 
consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass 
case on the top for large specimens, price £2000, 


Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in 
Mining pursuits or practical Geology. 


SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. 
Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. 


Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 
The same, 4 ins, sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5) On0 


MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. 


To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ 
by the Rev. WaLTER Mircne tt, M.A., and Professor Tennant, F.R.G.S. 


WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 


Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WarrrnousE Hawkrns’s Gro- 
LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, 
Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a 
ari one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 

s. 6d. extra. 


SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawkins, F.L.S., ete., adapted for 
Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1, 10s. 


Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. 
Hawkins’s RESTORATION oF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. 


Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, 
being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. 


All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and 
Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, 
Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top 
Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, ete., can be supplied to the 
Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by 
Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy 
and Geology can be had. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
Bos frontosus. By the Eprror. (With a Plate) . ¢ f an 
Scottish Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Ter os Brachiopoda. By T. Davrbson, Fag, »E.R. g, 
(With a Plate) - . : : . 443 
Geology of Maidstone Gueacaay a W. H. Buns1zp, Bsq. : ; : . 4A7 
Correspondence :— 
Origin of flmt in Chalk . ° : : : : A . 450 


On Restoration of Pteraspis. By E. R. Lanxuster, Hsq. (With Ji eres) 451 
When and How was the Isle of Wight severed from the veaad P By Rev. W. 
Fox . . 5 ; . 452 
Tracks, Trails, and eaves By Brofeseor eee J ONES : é i . 454: 
British Association Meeting at Cambridge :— 
On the Correlation of the Slates and Limestones of Devon and Cornwall with the 
Old Red Sandstones of Scotland. By W. Prnertty, Esq., F.G.S. . . . 456 
Notice of Mammalian Remains from the Bed of the German Ocean. By C. R. 


Rosz, F.G.S. . : : : : d : : : : : . 459 
On Artesian Wells at Nonpith By Rev. J. CRoMPTON : : : . 460 
Notice of other Papers read in Section G. . : : : . ; : . 462 
Proceedings of Societies :— 
Geological Society of London. ; : : : : : A 5 . 463 
Manchester Geological Society . 5 : : : : ° . 463 
London Institution: Mr. Brayley’ S Tiecbaros, : Betas ; : : . 463 
Notes and Queries :— 
Kellet Skull : 3 : ; : 5 : : : : wee Te re 
Gault Black Ven i : 4 : : , : ‘ ; : s . 469 
Fossil Man, Illinois. 5 ; ; : i : a ; ; : . 470 


Bone Caves of Malta . ‘ : ; f : : : ‘ : é . 470 
Foreign Intelligence. , : : 5 rec aes : i : 4 : . 471 
Review :— 

Carte Géologique du Département de la Loire-Inférieure. Par M. Cailliaud . 472 

Die Wunder der Urwelt, eine populire Darstellung der Geschichte der Schopfung 

und des Urzustandes unseres Weltkorpers, etc. By Dr. Zimmermann . . 473 

Ueber Placodus gigas, Agassiz, und Placodus Andriani. By Dr. Carl Friedrich 

Wilhelm Braun . : a : : : . ATA 
Apercu Géologique du Département ae la Moselle. By C. Fridrici . : . 474 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


ECanmuntations received from Rev. R. T. Dz ta Toucus, Stokesay, Salop; J. W. 
Sauter, Hsq., F.G.S8.; C. Carter Brake, Esq. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Ueber Thierfahrten und Crustaceen-Reste in der unteren Dyas, oder dem unteren Roth- 
liegenden, der Gegend von Hohenelbe. Von Dr. H. B. GErnitz. 

Carte Géologique du Département de la Loire-Inférieure. Par M. F. Carnuiaup, Direc- 
teur-Conservateur du Musée d’ Histoire Naturelle de Nantes. Leipzig : J. Rothschild. 


on ah i 


NOTICHK TO SUBSCRIBERS. 


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having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested 
that in future all swbseriptions and communications relating to the supply of the ‘ Geologist’ 
be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co., 5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. 

‘Che Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular 
subscribers for 18s, per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. 


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